


66-2-H 
L697s5 









to a, 
pos 
Br wae OF Erion ket 


on Ly Uh» »; uy) pet hy 8 














i an Lit?) 
Sy NE. R ina 
Ran 


a4 
| mM. Fi. is p 





Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2021 with funding from 
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 


https://archive.org/details/statueofabrahamlOOunit_1 


ZH se 
97) a 


STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 








HEARINGS 


BEFORE THE 


COMMITTEE ON THE/LIBRARY 


|\HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 


[SENTY-SIXTH CONGRESS 
SECOND SESSION 


ON 


‘APRIL 2, 1920 


a 


WASHINGTON 
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
173928 1920 


COMMITTEE ON THE LIBRARY. 
House or REPRESENTATIVES. 


SIXTY-SIXTH CONGRESS. 


NORMAN J. GOULD, New York, Chairman. 
SIMEON D. FESS, Ohio. BEN JOHNSON, Kentucky. 
ROBERT LUCE, Massachusetts. HERBERT C. PELL, Jr., New York. 
J. C. SHANKS, Clerk. 
a 


STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 





XOMMITTEE ON THE Liprary, 
Houser or REPRESENTATIVES, 
Washington, D. C., Friday, April 2, 1920. 

The committee met at 10 o’clock a. m., Hon. Norman J. Gould 
(chairman) presiding. } 

The CuarrMan. The committee will come to order. This meeting 

of the committee is held to discuss, and hear from those who intro- 

duced bills relative to the disposition of the statue of Abraham Lin- 


coln. 
Mr. Luhring, we will hear you, on H. Rk. 11443. 


STATEMENT OF HON. OSCAR R. LUHRING, A REPRESENTATIVE 
FROM THE STATE OF INDIANA. 


Mr. Luurmc. Mr. Chairman, and gentlemen of the committee, I 
introduced H. R. 11443 on the 5th day of January, 1920. The bill 
reads, omitting all formal parts— 


That the Secretary of War, in conjunction with the Commissioners of the 
District of Columbia be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to transfer 
(© and deliver forthwith to the Nancy Hanks Lincoln Burial Ground Commission, 
of the State of Indiana, or its duly accredited agents, the pedestrian statue of 
Abraham Lincoln which formerly stood on the site in front of the courthouse in 
the City of Washington, in the District of Columbia, to be by said commission 
\ reerected in or about the Nancy Hanks Lincoln Burial Grounds in Spencer 
County, Ind., no disposition of said statue having been provided for other than 
.. is authorized in this act: Provided, That the United States shall be at no ex- 
y pense in connection with the transportation, erection, and maintenance of said 
statute. 


‘LS’ T do not know whether or not the members of this committee are 
familiar with the history of the statue which I seek to have removed 
\ to Indiana, and perhaps a recital of that history will be of interest. 
I am going to read from an article which appeared in The Daily 
Intelligencer, a newspaper published in Washington, on April 16, 
~ 1868. This article appeared the next day after the statue had been 
unveiled. [Reading :] | | 


~. The history of the Lincoln’ Monument is as follows: On the 24th day of April, 

few 1865, Mr. N. D. Larner introduced in the city council a joint resolution for the 

—~appointment of a committee to consist of the mayor, three members of the 

VY)board of aldermen, and three from the board of common council, to devise 
measures for the erection of-a- monument in the City of Washington to the mem- 
ory of the late President. Lincoln. 

eh resolution was duly adopted and approved by the mayor, thus becoming 
a law. - ; 

To carry out the provisions. of the. resolution, Messrs. Crosby S. Noyes, 
George H. Plant, and John B. ‘Turton, on the part of the aldermen; and Messrs. 
Noble D. Larner, William Ferguson;:4nd James Kelly, on the part of the 
board of common council, were appointed the joint committee. Subsequently 


3 


4 STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 


ihe presidents of the two boards of the city government, Messrs. Joseph F. 
spate - 00 ASDULY Lloyd, were added to the committee. This committee met 
Beet 1e mayor's oftice on the 28th of April, 1865, and formed itself into an 
asseciation to be called the Lincoln National Monument Association, to carry 
out the objects proposed by the formation of the committee. Subsequently, 
the following oflicers were elected for the association: 

_ President, Richard Wallach, mayor; secretary, Crosby S. Noyes; treasurer, 
George W. Riggs. Directors: Joseph F. Brown, Asbury Lloyd, John B. Turton, 
Le W. G. H. Newman, “George H. Plant, Z. Richards; N. D. Larner, E. C. 
Carrington, John P. Pepper, S. J. Boweu, George F. Gulick, B. B. Freneh, 
George R. Ruff, Charles V. Morris, John G. Dudley, John H. Semmes, James 
Kelly, William P. Ferguson, 8. P. Brown, Dr. C. H. Nichols, Henry Addison, 
William H. Tenney. 

To these were added a number of honorary directors, mostly Members ot 
Congress, one from each State, as it was hoped at that time to secure u 
national subscription, to the end of raising a monument at the National Capital, 
the most suitable place, properly commemorative of. the life and character 
of the lamented deceased. Owing, however, to the springing up of kindred 
associations in almost every State and city in the country, this hope was not 
realized, and with the exception of some contributions from Baltimore, among 
which was a handsome sum from John T. Ford, Esq., the proceeds of a benefit 
for the monument fund, given at his Baltimore theater, little, if anything, was 
contributed outside of Washington. The money raised was, however, care- 
fully husbanded and was invested by the treasurer, Mr. Riggs, in Government 
registered bonds. The sum raised was, of course, inadequate to erect a monu- 
ment on anything like the scale originally proposed, but was yet sufficient to 
raise a monument in the shape of a shaft statue creditable to the city; and 
it was determined by the association that this was the best course to pursue. 
Mr. Lot Flannery, of this city, who has achieved a number of successes in his 
art, one of which is the admired monument over the victims of the arsenal 
explosion at the Congressional Cemetery, was the successful competitor for 
the work and the result is before the public. 

The site selected for the monument and whereon it is erected is exactly in 
the center of Four-and-a-half Street and directly in front of the central por- 
tico of the city hall. The monument is 38 feet in height to the top of the 
statue. It rests on a solid foundation of blue rock 6 feet in depth. The base 
is an octagon 6 feet in height and about 7 feet from side to side, on which the 
pase of the column rests, the lower part corresponding with the base and upper 
part with the shaft, being circular and molded. This shaft is 18 feet in 
height, with an average diameter of 3 feet (tapering), and is surmounted by 
a molded cap 4 feet square, 2 feet thick, on which rests the base of the statue 
and the statue itself. The figure at this height looks to be about life size and 
stands facing south. It represents Lincoln standing with his left hand resting 
on the emblem of unio: —Roman Facii—his head erect, with a slight inelina- 
tion forward, and richt herd partially opened, as in the attitude he was wont 
to take:in addressing an audience. 

Mr. Fess. Mr: Luhring, is that a description after the monument 
was erected, so that it is an accurate description ? 

Mr. Lunrime. Yes; I should say a most accurate description, be- 
cause this article appeared the next morning after the unveiling ex- 
ercises, and it was written at the time. 

Mr. Fess. That is what I wanted to know. 

Mr. Luurinc. Yes. This statue was the first statue of Lincoln 
erected in the District of Columbia, and perhaps the first of its kind 
erected in the United States. 

Mr. Fess. That is only three years after his death ? 

Mr. Lunrine. Only three years after his death. Mr. Lot Flannery, 
the sculptor, was a young man, perhaps 27 years of age, at the time 
he made this design. [Continuing reading: ] 

The design was first made in clay by Mr. Flannery last summer and was sub- 


sequently cast in plaster. The model attracted much attention as a spirited 
design and excellent likeness. The encomiums bestowed upon this design in- 


STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 5 


duced him to submit it to the manager of the monument association, and the 
result was that it was unanimously selected.from the various designs and 
models before the committee as the best offered. 


Now, I am unable to give to the committee the exact date when this 
statute was removed. That, so far as I am concerned, is shrouded in 
some mystery. 

Mr. Jounson. Can you tell by what authority? 

Mr. Lunrine. I was going to add, that I am unable to tell ac- 
curately by what authority it was removed. In order to ascertain 
the facts, I addressed an inquiry to the Public Buildings and 
Grounds Division of the War Department, to Col. C. S. Ridley. 

The Cuarrman. If you will pardon me, sir, I have the authority 
for that here. Were you going to bring that out ? 

Mr. Lunrine. Yes; that Congress authorized it at the time. This 
letter, which is in reply to my inquiry, is rather brief, and if you 
will pardon me, I will read it. [Reading :] 


JANUARY 29, 1920. 
Hon. C. R. LuHRiInG, M. C., 
House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. 


Dear Str: I am in receipt of your letter of January 26, in which you request 
information in regard to the removal of the Lincoln statue from the south front 
of the United States Court House Building in Judiciary Park. 

As you doubtless know, the court house building was recently remodeled 
under the direction of Mr. Elliott Woods, the superintendent of the Capitol 
Building and Grounds. The monument stood partly within the limits of Ju- 
diciary Park and partly on the sidewalk, and base of the monument was on 
« mound of earth five or six feet above the sidewalk. It became very desirable, 
therefore, in restoring the grounds around the building, to either lower the base 
to the ground and change the location of the monument somewhat, or to 
remove it entirely. : 

This question was submitted to the Commission of Fine Arts for its considera- 
tion. They recommended that the monument be removed. as it was entirely 
out of scale with the fine court house building and could not be put on a 
lower pedestal, because it was cut to be viewed at the height at .which it 
originally stood. The Commission of Fine Arts had no authority to order its 
removal, their function being simply to advise as to the desirability of per- 
mitting it to remain there, or to locate it at some other place. ' 

The deficiency appropriation act approved November 4, 1919. provided an 
appropriation for constructing walks and road, and restoring and planting the 
grounds around the Court House Building, including the removal of the statue. 
This work was done under my direction, as the officer in charge of the park, 
and the statue, including its base, was carefully taken down and safely stored 
at the store yard connected with this office. 

The statue and the stones composing its base were not damaged in removal, 
and can be reerected, should the Congress direct that this be done. It should 
not, however, be placed at its former location. 

Very truly, yours, 
C. S. Rm.eEy, 
Colonel, United States Army. 


Now, the appropriation referred to in that letter is found on page 
7 of Public Document 73, a public law of the Sixty-sixth Congress, 
under the main head, “ War Department” and subsdivisions “ Engi- 
neer department,” “public buildings and grounds,” and provides: 
“ For construction of walks and service road and the restoration and 
planting of grounds around the courthouse in Judiciary Park, in- 
cluding the removal of the statute, $23,445, one-half of which shall 
be paid from the revenues of the District of Columbia and one-half 
from the Treasury of the United States.” 


6 STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 


Whether Congress originally ordered the removal of, that status or 
not I do not know, but certainly they acquiesced in it by making this 
appropriation. I do not know when the statue was removed. This 
seems to be a deficiency bill, and that money was appropriated for 
‘that purpose. 

Mr. Fess. That is 1919? 

Mr. Lunrine. 1919. It was approved November 4, 1919. 

Now, of course, the District of Columbia is urging that this statue 
be permitted to remain within the District. Others parts of the 
country are asking that it be erected in their respective States. I 
desire to call the committee’s attention to some of the reasons as- 
signed by the District of Columbia, or by some of the citizens here 
who are asking that it be permitted to remain. I do not wish to dis- 
éuss the claims of any State other than that of Indiana. 

Now, in the first place, the main reason urged by the District for 
its retention is that the statue was paid for by 1 the citizens of the Dis- 
~ trict of Columbia, and I assume that that is correct, because all the 
information I have been able to obtain indicates that most of the 
funds were raised here. With that as the main reason, they suggest, 
first, that the statue be reerected at Fort Stevens, somewhere near 
Brightwood, about 3 miles from the Maryland line. I am not very 
familiar with the location, but the sentimental reason prompting that 
suggestion is that Mr. Lincoln sometime during the Civil War viewed 
a battle from that place. 

Then it is next suggested that the statue be reerected in the park 
which is between the old courthouse and the Pension Building. 

And then, again, it has been urged that it should be reerected in 
front of the old courthouse, on the site on which it formally stood. 
That last proposition, of course, meets with the objection of the Fine 
Arts Commission, and in view of the situation existing now, I doubt 
very much whether that would be practicable. 

The reason against the claims of the District, and one, I think. 
‘a very potent one, is that the District authorities and the people 
who are now interesting themselves in this Lincoln statue were 
absolutely and utterly indifferent to what became of it. They saw 
the work of removal in progress, and not one word of protest was 
uttered by the people or by the newspapers, and the newspaper that 
is now editorially insisting that it should remain here was absolutely 
silent, and I doubt whether any Member of Congress knew when 
he voted for the appropriation bill that it was the Lincoln statue 
that was referred to. Since then, since other States have asked for 
the statue, we find community centers and others asking that it 
remain here. Others condemn the Fine ae Commission for order- 
ing that it be removed. 

The Fort Stevens location is too far removed to even permit the 
location of it there. 
~ Mr. Fess. Do you mean that has already been selected ? 

Mr. Luurie. Oh, no. 

Mr. Fess. Just proposed. 

My. Lunmere. I am just telling you some of the reasons that have . 
occurred to me. 

Another very strong reason, it strikes me, in favor of removal, is 
this: That the District of Columbia has the splendid Lincoln Me- 
morial, which in great measure does justice to the memory of that 


STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 7 


great man. In addition to that, parks have been named for him, 
streets have been named for him, and various statues are here, and, 
so far as the people of the District are concerned, they have been 
fairly well treated, it seems to me, in that respect. 

If the committee will indulge me, I want to call their attention 
at this point to some of the Lincoln history in Indiana in support of 
Indiana’s claim. 

It does not appear to be generally known that all three sons of the 
elder Abraham Lincoln, grandfather of the President, eventually 
emigrated to Indiana. The first to come was Josiah, the second 
son, who settled on Big Blue River, in Harrison County, Ind. This 
was in the year 1812. To this wilderness home came Thomas Lin- 
coln, father of the President, on a visit, and in part, at least, his 
removal from Kentucky to Indiana a little later was due to the 
persuasion of his brother Josiah and partly on account of slavery, 
but chiefly on account of the difficulty in land titles in Kentucky. 

It was sometime during the late summer of the year of 1816 when 
Thomas Lincoln built a raft on Rolling Fork of Salt River, on 
which he loaded most of his effects, consisting of a tool chest, a num- 
ber of barrels of whisky, and such other things as he possessed, save 
a few lighter and more needful household articles which his family 
would make use of in his absence. He proceeded to make a journey 
down Salt River to the Ohio and thence to Indiana. 

On this trip soon after entering the Ohio from the mouth of Salt 
River his boat or raft capsized, causing the loss of the greater part of 
his cargo. We are told, however, that he succeeded in righting the 
raft, fishing up some of the whisky and tools, and, contenting him- 
self as best he could with the loss of the remainder, he continued 
his journey, finally docking at Thompsons, now called Gages Land- 
ing, a short distance below the town of Troy, Ind. His reason for 
choosing Spencer County rather than settling near his brother Josiah 
in Harrison County was largely due to the fact that he was depend- 
ent upon the river for conveyance of his effects to a new location, and 
having “run the river” he had some knowledge of this region where 
he eventually located. 

After making his lonely journey and effecting a safe landing at 
Thompsons, he placed his cargo under the care of a settler by the 
name of Posey. Since this man preferred the river front to the in- 
terior, and could make use of the boat, it was sold to him, and the 
pioneer “struck out on foot” in the wilderness in search of a new 
home. After going inland some 15 miles he met with a man by the 
name of Carter, with whom he had more or less acquaintance. 
(Lincoln City is in Carter Township.) ‘This circumstance seems to 
have largely determined his choice of the location which he made in 
the “ midst of the bush.” There were seven families residing in this 
region when Thomas Lincoln made choice of his future home. 

The site chosen by Thomas Lincoln was admirable from every 
standpoint save one, and that defect outweighed all of the splendid 
advantages it otherwise possessed. It did not have a never-failing 
spring; in fact, there was not at that time any water on it. Later, 
as Dennis Hanks stated: “Tom Lincoln riddled his land like honey- 
comb for water, but did not succeed in finding it.” 

Although Lincoln proceeded to take possession of the quarter sec- 
tion of land in true pioneer fashion by cutting and piling brush at 


§ STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 


the corners, he became, in fact, a squatter until the month of October, 
1817, when he journeyed to Vincennes and formally entered the land, 
although the patent was not issued until June, 1827. 

The site for his “camp” was on a rather high knoll sloping in 
every direction. In 10 days after landing his craft at Posey’s he 
announced that his “half-faced camp” was ready for occupancy, 
having in that time cut the poles or logs and notched them, doubt- 
less being assisted by Carter and others. Crossing the Ohio, he 
walked back to the old home in Kentucky—a distance of about 100 
miles—and, securing the friendly aid of his brother-in-law, who 
supplied him with two horses, he took his little family, consisting 
of his wife, and his daughter Sarah, aged 9 and son Abraham, aged 
7, and “ packed through to Posey’s. ” i 

The town of Troy was, at this time, a place of some importance; 
indeed, of all those towns in the southern and western portion of 
the State, it was second only to Vincennes in size. In the year prior 
to the coming of the Lincolns a settler by the name of Hoskins had 
been employed to blaze a trail from Troy to the village of Darlington, 
the county-seat town to the west, in order “ that the mail carrier 
might not get lost.” This blazed trail passed through the region 
where Gentryville Was a little later laid out, and it was over this 
trail, a “bridle path,” that Thomas Lincoln moved his family and 
household effects to his new home. A wagon had in some manner 
been procured for this purpose, although such vehicles were not at 
all common, for the first wagon brought to this part of the State 

was by one John Small, a Kentuckian, in the year 1814. 

' After encountering ‘considerable difficulty on account of fell- 
ing trees and the removal of logs, making their comparatively 
short journey of 15 miles a very tedious and trying one, they at 
length reached the half-faced camp. The time of the arrival of the 
new “settlers” was during the last half of the summer of 1816. 
At any rate, it appears that sufficient time was left after their arriy: al 
to enable them to cultivate a “ few vegetables and a little corn.’ 

The new home to which Thomas Lincoln took his little family 
was a singular one, indeed. As has been indicated, it was made of 
small saplings or poles and had but three sides closed, the fourth 
being left open, where a bonfire or log heap was kept burning during 
cold weather, and not only served to ward off the wintry blasts but 
afforded the only means they had for cooking. The little, one-room, 
pole cabin was 14 feet square, without windows, ceiling, or floor, 
and, of course, there was no necessity for a door. The household 
and kitchen furniture was only such in name. Aside from small tin- 
ware, there was at first nothing with which to furnish the home. A 
rude bedstead was constructed in one corner, and in another corner 
a pile of leaves gathered from the surrounding forest constituted 
the couch of the future President. 

The first winter spent in Indiana was, so far as bodily comfort 
was concerned, the most trying time in the life of the future Presi- 
dent, as he liv ed quite on the level, if not below, that of thousands 
of slaves whom he afterwards liberated. With one side of their 
little cabin open to the elements and the rebellious smoke again and 
again sweeping into the camp, it furnished not only a striking con- 
trast to the later life of the President, but so far surpassing any- 
thing in history as to leave little chance for a parallel. 


STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 9 


Aside from the flatboat. trips down,the Ohio and Mississippi 
Rivers, young Lincoln saw comparatively little of the world with- 
out. He frequented the sittings of the circuit courts at Booneville, 
in Warrick County, as well as at Rockport, the county seat of Spencer 
County, and was often at Troy. In addition to his visits to these 
comparatively small places, he had an occasion to go at least once 
a year, after approaching manhood, to Princeton, in Gibson County, 
there being a carding machine located at that place which converted 
the fleece into rolls “ready for the spinning wheel. Hand carding 
being quite tedious and slow, young Lincoln was sent with the wool 
to this machine. The journey was a rather long one for that time, 
and occupied some three days. 

The family Bible, Pilgrim’s Progress, and Asop’s Fables were 
the only books in the possession of the family on their arrival in 
Indiana. The mother of Lincoln was accustomed to read these books 
to both her daughter, Sarah, and little Abraham, and it is said that 
Aisop’s Fables possessed a peculiar fascination and charm for him 
while yet a mere lad at his mother’s knee. 

The Life of Washington, which Lincoln obtained from Josiah 
Crawford, was read many times, and if it may be chargéd that this 
volume took occasion to deify Washington and failed to meet. ac- 
ceptance at a later period, it was perhaps the very best sort of publi- 

cation for Lincoln and certainly better suited to him at that time 
than such a biography as that by Washington Irving. The His- 
tory of the United States was obtained from Jones, the storekeeper. 

Young Lincoln was not only in the habit of attending the sessions 
of the circuit court but he was also interested in the trials before 
the local justice of the peace. That he possessed an ambition at 
this early period to become a lawyer is certainly true. His friend, 
David Turnham, was elected constable of the township, and had in 
consequence gotten possession of a copy of the Revised Statutes of 
Indiana. 

This volume contained a copy of the Declaration of Independence 
as well as the National and State constitutions. ‘These Lincoln 
studied, committing to memory the Declaration of Independence 
and large portions of the National Constitution, and for the first 
time in his life met with legal enactments touching upon slavery. 

In the year of 1818 Abraham Lincoln experienced a great mis- 
fortune in the death of his mother. The many exacting duties inci- 
dent to pioneer life doubtless constituted a factor in producing that 
strange melancholy that ever possessed him, but to be bereft of his 
mother at the age of ten was perhaps in the main responsible for 
this. At least it justifies the belief that such a sad misfortune at 
this period of his life. together with some of the attending circum- 
stances, readily took advantage of a latent predisposition so charac- 
teristic ‘of his mother. 

One may form some idea of the extent to which the pioneers were 
governed by stern necessity when it is recalled that Thomas Lincoln, 
the husband, on the death of his wife, was forced to perform a part 
of the offices of an undertaker. There being no one save himself in 
that community sufficiently skilled with tools to construct a coffin, 
he did this, and at the same time made coffins in which to bury 
Thomas and Betsy Sparrow. He was not a stranger to this kind of 


10 STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 


work, since he was in the habit of doing it for the entire community. 
The lumber with which the coffin for Nancy Hanks Lincoln was made 
was whipsawed out of a log unused in the building of the wilderness 
cabin. Dennis Hanks and Thomas Lincoln sawed the planks and, 
while they were thus engaged, Abraham whittled out the wooden 
pins which the elder Lincoln used to fasten the planks together, 
there being no nails in this part of the world at that time. 

Although Abraham was but 10 years of age at this time, yet, im- 
pressed with the fact that his mother’s memory was entitled to the 
usual funeral services that he had been accustomed to witness, he 
wrote a letter requesting the services of Parson Elkins, an itinerant 
Baptist minister who resided in Kentucky, frequently conducting 
services there, and doubtless officiated at the burial of his baby 
brother. At any rate, Elkins had impressed himself upon the mind 
and heart of the lad, so that he did not hesitate to presume upon his 
good offices by asking that he travel a hundred miles through this 
wilderness. : 

We in Indiana, of course, are proud of the fact—and I think it is 
a pardonable pride—that Abraham Lincoln spent. 14 years of his 
life there—from the age of 7 to the age of 21. 

Mr. Fess. Mr. Luhring, before you go on, is this burial ground at 
the same place or in the neighborhood where Lincoln first settled in 
Indiana ? 

Mr. Lunrine. The very same place. You can stand at the grave 
of Nancy Hanks Lincoln and see the place where this three-sided 
cabin was built. 

Mr. Fess. That Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln first 
built—the three-sided cabin ? 3 

Mr. Luurine. Yes; in fact, this little piece of land is a part of the 
land that Thomas Lincoln homesteaded. 

Comparatively little is known concerning Nancy Hanks, and there 
is small wonder, since nothing eventful transpired in her life be- 
yond these things common to the pioneer. 

Mr. Herndon, the friend and law partner of Mr. Lincoln, and later 
his biographer, in speaking of Lincoln’s mother, said: 

“At the time of her marriage to Thomas Lincoln, Nancy was in 
her twenty-third year. She was above the ordinary height in stat- 
ure, weighed about 130 pounds, was slenderly built, and had much 
the appearance of one inclined to consumption. Her skin was dark; 
her hair, dark brown; eyes, grey and small; forehead, prominent ; 
face, sharp and angular, with an expression of meiancholy which 
fixed itself in the memory of anyone who ever saw or knew her. 
Though her life was seemingly clouded by a spirit of sadness, she 
was in disposition amiable and generally cheerful. Of her Lincoln 
often said: “All that I am or ever hope to be I owe to my angel of 
a mother.” 

At the time of the death of Lincoln’s mother there was mourning 
in practically every home of the entire neighborhood, for that dread 
disease peculiar to the pioneer days, known as mill-sick, had ap- 
peared in epidemic form and attacked beasts as well as men. ‘Thomas 
and Betsy Sparrow, who had in part reared Nancy Hanks, and who 
had followed the Lincolns to Indiana, living in the abandoned half- 
faced camp, were both stricken with this scourge and died about the 


STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. i | 


same time Mrs. Lincoln did. In fact, of the 25 families in this settle- 
ment, many of whom were former Kentucky neighbors of the Lin- 
colns, more than half were claimed by this strange malady. 
~The Lincolns and Hanks left Indiana in the month of March, 1830. 
The people of Gentryville were loath to see the Lincolns leave, and it 
is said that on the morning of their final departure quite a crowd 
collected to bid them farewell. Many of them accompanied the Lin- 
eolns some distance on their journey, among them being the elder 
Gentry. One man, in telling of seeing them begin their journey, 
stated that “ Abe drove the oxen, having a rope attached to the horn 
of a lead ox, and with a hickory ‘ gad’ in his free hand.” 

None of the party of 13 ever returned to the scenes of their 14 
years’ residence in Indiana save Abraham, and he spent three days 
in and about Gentryville during the political campaign of 1844, mak- 
ing three speeches in that county. That southern Indiana was of all 
places best suited to rear this great character destined to furnish the 
nations of the earth an example of the possibilities of the plain 
people is the position here taken. The odium, not to say shame, 
of being a Hoosier has undergone a marked change since Lincoln’s 
time. While Mr. Lincoln was a resident of this portion of Indiana, 
or soon after his reaching Illinois, there were many domiciled in log 
cabins in this Indiana wilderness who were afterward to become 
famous. 

Among them was Walter Q. Gresham. He lived in that neighbor- 
hood. 

The Lincoln admirers have been made to believe by most of his 
biographers that he was a Hoosier prodigal who came to himself 
about the time, or soon after, reaching the State of [lnois; and at 
this time, or subsequent to it, there were certain super-added things 
affixed to his character that made for honesty, truthfulness, and fixity 
of purpose. The truth of the matter is that the boy Lincoln was 
father of the man. 

But, however well meant the efforts were on the part of these 
numerous historians touching Mr. Lincoln’s early career, unfortu- 
nately they have succeeded in focusing the gaze of the world either 
upon the spot in the State of Kentucky that gave him birth, or upon 
the prairies of Illinois where he took his rise to fame, and where 
his ashes now rest. Those years in his life which he spent in 
Indiana—from 7 to 21—which ordinarily made a period in the life 
of most men of momentous importance, have been more or less 
neglected. 

Without purposing to make invidious distinction against any, it 
can not be justly charged that the claim degenerates to the level of 
‘a mere puerility when it is asserted that Abraham Lincoln was a 
typical Hoosier rather than a Kentuckian and he was such not only 
during his residence in Indiana, for one-fourth of his life, but it 
is further claimed that he remained a Hoosier throughout his great 
career. 

State lines, of course, do not ordinarily mark the boundaries of 
‘racial characteristics or peculiarities in manners and customs of 
_representatives of the same people, save perhaps in those instances 
where large rivers or mountain ranges form the boundary line. 
Hence, the change of residence of Mr. Lincoln to the Sangamon 


12 STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 


River country was not such as to occasion any difficulty in adjusting 
himself to the purely local manners, habits, and customs of the peo- 
ple. But it is nevertheless true that there was a marked indivi- 
uality and certain well-defined characteristics in speech and in habits 
of life typical of the Hoosier. ‘These dominant traits of character 
which Mr. Lincoln acquired during a residence in Indiana of 14 
years, clung to him to the day of his “death. 

In his pronunciation (he began his Cooper Institute address by 
saying “ Mr. Cheerman”), his peculiar idioms, homely illustrations, 
figures of speech, his quaint humor and rare wit, his personal ap- 
pearance, his refusal—at least failure—to readily conform to mere 
conventionalities in dress and many other things of that sort were 
preeminently characteristic of the pioneer Hoosier. Mr. Lincoln’s 
hands had held the ax and maul so long as to prove rebellious when 
the conventionalities of men attempted to glove them. His custom 
was to carry his gloves on occasion, but he rarely wore them. 

In an address to an Indiana regiment of Civil War soldiers Presi- 
dent Lincoln said: 


I was born in Kentucky, raised in Indiana, and now live in Illinois. 


Since it is particularly with these years spent in Indiana with 
which we have to do, the inquiry is here made, What period in the 
life of any man is of as much ‘interest or ordinarily calculated to 
influence and shape the destiny as those years between 7 and 21? 
What happened during those formative years in Mr. Lincoln’s life? 
Was his stay in Indiana a mere chance, one of the accidents in the 
fortune of a roving, nomadic father, or is there rather discerned a 
leading of Providence ? 

The Cuarrman. Pardon me; could you outline to us a little about 
this Nancy Hanks Burial Ground Commission ? 

Mr. Lunrre. Yes; I am coming to that. 

The Cuatrman. There are four or five people here to be heard. 

Mr. Lunrine. I am willing to proceed any way you suggest, but 
wish you would allow me to continue with this history of Lincoln 
in Indiana. 

It may not be inappropriate here to raise the question, Would his 
career have been what it afterward became had be spent these forma- 
tive’years elsewhere, even in the State of Illinois? Or, reversing 
the order of history, had be been born in Indiana, spending the first 
seven years there, removing to the State of Kentucky, remaining 
there until attaining his m majority, and then going to Illinois as he 
did, would his career have been what it was? It is believed that 
certain influences would have produced marked changes in him, and 
so much as to have prevented Lincoln from becoming “the ereat anti- 
slavery advocate and leader. Moreover, it can not ‘be doubted that 
had he spent all of these 14 formative years in Kentucky, even 
though born in Indiana, his greatness would have almost. wholly 
been attributed to a residence and rearing among Kentucky pioneers, 
and the accident of his birth would have doubtless received some- 
what less consideration than it has. Unquestionably, had Mr. Lin- 
coln been reared elsewhere than in Indiana, particularly in a slave 
State, the plans and purposes of his life might have been hindered 
or defeated altogether. In raising such questions we are not wholly 
in a field purely conjectural. 


STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 13 


Long before Mr. Lincoln reached the State of Illinois, and, there- 
fore, while yet a resident of Indiana, he possessed that inimitable 
style in public address, his well-known sense of fairness, his strange 
and weird melancholy, his quaint humor and rare wit, his consuming 
ambition, certain weaknesses, his abiding faith in Providence, his 
superstitious beliefs, his Calviniste fatalsm, his freedom from bad 
habits, his methods in original investigation, his peculiar style in 
controverted questions, his power with the pen, his honesty and 
truthfulness, and, in fact, every characteristic that has been noted 
in him again and again as a man. 

When Lincoln, a bearded man, walked down Sangamon River 
bottom, Illinois, for the first time, his character was already formed. 
He brought with him from Indiana his rare wit, humor, and inex- 
haustible fund of anecdotes. He possessed no bad habits. His school 
days were over. It is true that he took a postgraduate course in 
Shakespeare and Burns, and when offered a position as assistant 
surveyor, this graduate of the Indiana wilderness, fresh from his 
reading of the classics—the King James version of the Bible, 
Aesop’s Fables, Lives of Franklin and Washington—reported in 
just six weeks for duty, having mastered this science in that in- 
credibly short time, to the astonishment of his benefactor. 

This brief history is sufficient to justify the claim that not only 
was the foundation of Mr. Lincoln’s character Jaid in the Indiana 
wilderness, but the beginning of all that afterwards made himself 
great asserted itself during these early years. 

Mr. Fess. I think, Mr. Luhring, a coincidence is worth while. 
Lincoln’s father went into Indiana in 1816; isn’t that the date of 
the admission of your State? } 

Mr. Lunrine. Yes; we were admitted in 1816, and he came there 
in 1816. The father came there alone and built his cabin, and then 
walked back 100 miles to Kentucky and returned with his family. 

Mr. Fess. So T understand. 

Mr. Lunrine. Now, with reference to the Nancy Hanks burial 
ground; I have here some photographs T would like for the com- 
mittee to examine; some postal cards; and then T have a much larger 
view. I have also prepared a description of the park, which TI will 
insert in the record at this place. It contains 164 acres of land. and 
is owned by the State of Indiana. , 


THE NANCY HANKS PARK. 


Location.—This park is located in Clay Township, Spencer County, at Lin- 
coln City, Ind. The minute location is 600 feet directly south of the spot 
upon which stood the Lincoln cabin, and which is now located by a marker. 
It is about two blocks southeast of the Southern Railway station and in view 
of the Evansville, Rockport, and Cannelton branches of that railway. 

Size——The park contains 164 acres; one-half acre forming the entrance, 10 
acres being in woods, dense as formed by nature, remaining 6 acres in meadow, 
which extends from the woods into the northeast corner and a strip along the 
entire south side of the grounds. 

Purchase.—This 163 acres of ground was purchased from Robert Ferguson 
by the county commissioners July 4, 1900. It was deeded to the State by the 
county commissioners in 1907. 

Surroundings.—On the north, or entrance side, the park is bordered by the 
town and a rolling prairie, almost level, leading to woods and flat lands in the 
distance; on the south or back side, by rolling lands which lead in the near 
distance to large and beautiful hills almost equaling in beauty the hills of Ver- 


14 STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 


mont; on the east the land gradually slopes ‘away from the park for about 2 
miles; then begin hills which are barren, giving a beautiful contrast to the 
park. 

On the west a gentle slope extends to level Jand and woods, reaching hills 
in the distance. 

Improvements.—This land, when purchased for beautifying, was only a 
woods surrounded by meadow ‘on the northeastern and the southern sides. 
The undergrowth was cut out, except in patches, ground cleaned in general and 
entire field, excepting meadow, was sown in blue grass. An iron picket fence 
was built around the entire field and a row of shade trees along the fence make 
shade around the entire park. 

The landscaping was done by Mr. Bolinger of Lake Forest, Ill., the man who 
did the landscaping for the Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, I]. 

Buildings—The keeper’s home is a small but beautiful cottage artistically 
placed among shrubs and flowers. 

The pumping station is a circular concrete building very neat. It is located 
a few yards from the keeper’s home. It has a tank capacity of 2,000 gallons, 
and from it pipe lines lead to all parts of the park. It furnishes all the water 
necessary to properly care for the flowers, grass, shrubbery, etc. 

The auditorium is constructed of iron, and will seat a great number of people. 
It is surrounded by beautiful shrubbery. Benches are also placed all through 
the park. 

Trees.—The grove is composed of the following trees: Native dogwood: 
sweet, red, and rock elms; buckeye and red bud; white, red, black, post, and 
jack oaks; soft, hard, and Norway maples; native evergreen, spruce, and native 
mulberry; black walnut, hickory, gum, ash, cottonwood, sycamore, poplar, per- 
simmon, and sassafras. This includes about all the different trees. Most of 
them are numerous and in fine condition and well cared for, and cover about 
10 acres. 

Shrubbery.—There are a large number of roses of all kinds iniclinaian ram- 
blers, tea, and daily bloomers. Also Michigan currant; honeysuckle; grape 
vines; Indian arrow; Indian currant; Japanese quince; white, purple, and pink 
lilac; snow ball; golden elder; California privet; Japanese hedge; Rose of 
Sharon; umbrella type hydranges (hard), and a few shrubs unnamed. Quite 
a number of nearly all of the above are artistically placed to blend with the 
natural beauty of the park. 

S ‘e are about 100 gray squirrels, which are becoming 
very tame. Birds of all kinds found in Indiana are seen in the park. Boxes 
have been provided for both, and food is also provided. 

Main roads——This road extends from the gates to the flagpole. It is 20 
feet wide, made of crushed rock, and bordered by a concrete gutter for drain- 
age. On each side of the road is a 5-foot crushed-stone walk bordered by 
shrubbery. The lion statues at the gates are on bases about 6 feet high. The 
eagle statues are on bases about 10 feet high. 

At the flagpole, the main road divides into two roads, each 10 feet wide, 
and which loop around through the woods, passing the pumping. station, 
monument, and auditorium. These roads are constructed of crushed rock and 
gravel. On top of the hill, near the monument of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, and 
to the right of it, a gravel drive leaves the loop roads and passes the audi- 
torium into the one-half acre used for the parking of automobiles. 

Walks.—The right walk along the main driveway from the lions to the 
eagles leaves the eagles to the right and leads to the keeper’s house, thence 
to the pump station and road. The left walk at the entrance leads from the 
eagles to the monument, winding among the trees and shrubbery. <A branch 
from this walk, just before reaching the monument, leads to the ladies’ toilet, 
and is bordered by shrubbery. From the monument, a circular walk winds to 
the auditorium and back. From the northeast corner of the auditorium there 
is a walk to the men’s toilet. These walks are made of gravel or crushed rock, 
and are 4 feet wide, excepting the entrance walks, which are of crushed rock 
and 5 feet wide. 

Maintenance.—The State of. Indiana appropriates $1,200 annually for the 
upkeep and maintenane of the park and buildings. There is absolutely no 


charge for admission whatever. 
The Cuarrman. Is the park supported by the State? 
Mr, Lunrrnc. It is supported by the State. 
The CuatrmMan. And maintained ? 





STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 15 


Mr. Lunring. And maintained. The Legislature or General As- 
sembly of the State of Indiana passed an act, approved on March 5, 
1907, to provide for the improvement and maintenance by the State 
of the grounds whereon the grave of Nancy Hanks Lincoln is 
located, creating a commission and making an appropriation there- 
for, and declaring an emergency. 

The act reads as follows: 


AN ACT To provide for the improvement and maintenance, by the State of the grounds 
whereon the grave of Nancy Hanks Lincoln is located; creating a commission and 
making appropriations therefor, and declaring an emergency. (Approved Mar. 5, 1907.) 


SecTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, 
That the Nancy Hanks Lincoln Memorial Association and the members thereof 
are hereby authorized to convey and transfer to the State of Indiana, and the 
State of Indiana shall thereupon receive and accept, all lands, moneys, and 
other property owned or possessed by such association, including the land on 
which is now located the grave of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, in Spencer County, 
Indiana, which deed and instrument of transfer shall be duly executed by 
said association and all the members thereof to the State of Indiana, so as to 
convey the absolute title thereto, and said moneys shall be paid into the 
treasury of the State. 

Sec. 2. That for the purpose of carrying out the objects of this act there is 
hereby created a commission to be known as the Board of Commissioners -of 
the Nancy Hanks Lincoln Burial Grounds, to consist of three commissioners, 
two of whom shall be appointed by the governor not later than thirty days 
after the taking effect of this act; not more than two of whom shall belong 
to the same political party, and one member of said Board of Commissioners 
of the Nancy Hanks Lincoln Burial Grounds shall be a resident of Spencer 
County, Indiana, and the governor shall at once notify such persons of their 
appointment under his certificate and seal, and such notice shall constitute 
their commission and shall be by them deposited in the office of the secretary 
of State and there recorded. The secretary of the State Board of Forestry 
shall ex officio be a member of said board. Said commissioners so appointed,, 
and said secretary of the State Board of Forestry, shall receive no compensa- 
tion for their services as members of such commission, but shall be entitled to 
their actual expenses while they are actually employed in attending to their 
duties as such commissioners, to be paid on itemized statements, sworn to by 
the respective claimants. The governor may, for just cause after due notice 
and hearing, remove any member of said board, and fill all vacancies therein 
caused by removal or otherwise, on the same conditions as hereinbefore pro- 
vided for their appointment. 

Sec. 3. That one of such commissioners to be designated by the governor at 
the time of his appeintment as provided herein, shall serve for two years and 
the other of said commissioners shall serve for four years from the date of 
such appointment, and that the term of office of commissioners appointed 
hereunder shall be four years, except as to such first commissioner, who shall 
be appointed for two years. 

Sec. 4. It shall be the duty of said commission to have full charge and 
control of said premises, to erect a substantial and ornamental fence around 
said burial ground and premises, to place said premises in good condition and 
repair and beautify the same, to preserve the monument now erected over said 
grave, and to keep and maintain said premises in repair and in proper condi- 
tion. Payment therefor shall be madé out of the State treasury only upon 
warrant of the auditor of State, after said board have certified the respective 
amounts due, upon vouchers duly executed by the parties entitled to such pay- 
ment. 

Src. 5. There is hereby appropriated out of any funds in the State treasury; 
not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $5,000 for the purpose of constructing 
such fenee and of placing said grounds in proper condition and repair, and a 
further appropriation of $500 annually is hereby made for keeping said 
premises in proper condition and repair thereafter. Said sum of $5,000 shall 
be available immediately upon the taking effect of this ‘act, and said annual 
appropriations shall become available on the first of April of each year. com- 
mencing with the year 1908, 

Sec. 6. An emergency existing, this act shall be in full force and effect from 
and after its passage. 


16 STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 


Now, I might add for your information, Mr. Chairman, that 
the State appropriates annually $1,200 for the care of this ‘park, 
We keep a caretaker there during the entire year. He has a beauti- 
ful cottage among the trees and “yesides on the premises. We have 
left the park as far as possible as it was during Lincoln’s time. 
The various trees are still there, but, of course, it has been beauti- 
fied by walks and flowers and ‘shrubbery. In fact, they had the 
services of a landscape artist from Lake Forest, Ill., a very able 
man, who carefully planned the entire work. 

The CHarrman. Will you indicate to the committee where the 
funds for this removal and reerection of this monument will come ~ 
from ? 

Mr. Luurine. We do not expect the Congress to appropriate any 
money, or the United States to spend any money for that purpose. 

The Cuarrman. Who will do it? 

Mr. Luurine. The State of Indiana; I think probably it will 
come out of the governor’s contingent fund. Gov. Goodrich is very 
much interested. 

The CuHatrmMan. Have you anything in writing from him? 

Mr. Lunrine. No; but in a conversation I had with him he said 
Lonmeeer: wi you can get the statue we will get the money to take 
it over.’ 

Now. en that line, and showing the interest of the people of 
the State of Indiana, when our legislature was called in special 
session for one day for the purpose of ratifying the suffrage amend- 
ment, and with the understanding that no other business should 
be transacted, the only other thing that was done was the passage 
of a concurrent resolution asking for the removal of this statue, and 
asking that it be sent to Indiana. I would like to put that into the 
record at this place. It reads as follows: 


A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION Concerning the transfer of the statue of Abraham Lin- 
: coln from Washington, District of Columbia, to Lincoln City, Indiana. 


Whereas. a statue erected to the memory of Abraham Lincoln in the city of 
Washington, District of Columbia, is now being torn down and dismantled, 
leaving the statue intact, therefore: 

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring, That 
the Senators in the Congress of the United States from the State of Indiana be 
instructed, and the Representatives be requested to use their best efforts t6 
procure the statue of Abraham Lincoln now in the city of Washington, District . 
of Columbia, for and on behalf of the State of Indiana and to take such steps 
as may be necessary to secure the transportation of same and the erection 
thereof in the Nancy Hanks Lincoln Burial Ground, at Lincoln City, Indiana, 
where lies the body of the mother of Abraham Lincoln. 

I hereby certify that the resolution hereto attached is a true and correct copy 
of the original House concurrent resolution No. 1, now on file in the archives of 
the Legislative Reference Bureau of the State of Indiana, and that the follow- 
ing is an authentic transcript of the legislative action by which House concur- 
rent resolution No. 1 was adopted: 

* Special session of the Seventy-first General Assembly of the State of Indi- 
ana convened by ha RE gy of the governor to meet at 10 o’clock a. m. on 
January 16, 1920. 

‘“ House concurrent secblution No. 1, introduced by Mr. Adolph Decker, repre- 
sentative from Vanderburgh County. 

* Adopted by unanimous vote of the house. 

“Transmitted to the senate. 

“ Handed down by the president of the senate and adopted by unanimous 
vote. 

‘‘ CHARLES KETTLEBOROUGH, 
“ Director Indiana Legislative Reference Bureau.” 


STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 17 


Mr. Fess. I see a “ Lincoln City ” in Indiana. 

Mr. Luring. Lincoln City was, of course, named after Lincoln. 
The park is right at the edge of this little town. 

Mr. Fess. What about Rockport, Ind. ? 

Mr. Luurrmc. The picture that you have there with “ Rockport ” 
marked on it seems to be one sold by a Rockport druggist. 

Mr. Fess. Is it the same monument ? 

Mr. Lure. Yes; the man Bayse, who had that postal made, is 
a druggist at Rockport, Ind. 

Mr. Frss. How large is the town? 

Mr. Lunrine. About 600. 

Mr. Fess. What about the access to it? 

Mr. Luurine. They have the Southern Railroad and splendid 
wagon roads. It is not far from French Lick. I want to say this 
and I think perhaps Mr. Cannon will recall, that it is a place where 
they very frequently hold patriotic exercises. I don’t know whether 
you were there, Mr. Cannon, at the time the Indiana editorial asso- 
ciation met there. 

Mr. Cannon. No. 

Mr. Luurre. Mr. Lincoln’s birthday is always fittingly remem- 
bered. Fourth of July, Decoration Day, and other holidays are ob- 
served by appropriate exercises. Visitors to French Lick motor 
there to see the grave of Nancy Hanks. It is easily accessible. 

I also desire to call your attention to this petition, signed by over 
1,700 of the best people in the first congressional district; business 
and professional men; men and women interested in civic affairs; 
and I am told by your secretary, Mr. Chairman, that you have also 
received a great number of petitions from the people of the first dis- 
trict, all urging that you give this monument to the Nancy Hanks 
Lincoln Burial Commission. 

I could prolong this hearing by pointing out many sentimental 
reasons why the statue should be given to us, but I will only mention 
the one which, in my opinion, should prompt this committee to look 
with favor on the claims of Indiana. 

Lincoln’s mother, the one person to whom he gave credit for all 
his achievements, is buried there. A beautiful monument marks her 
erave. What monument more fitting or place more appropriate can 
be found than the first monument ever erected to Lincoln located 
near the grave of his “ angel of a mother?” 

Just one more matter, and I am done: In a letter written to his 
friend, William Johnston, April 18, 1846, and inclosing a piece of 
poetry, Mr. Lincoln wrote: 

The piece of poetry of my own which I alluded to, I was led to write under 
the following circumstances: In the fall of 1844, thinking I might aid some to 
carry the State of Indiana for Mr. Clay, I went into the neighborhood in that 
State in which I was raised, where my mother and only sister were buried, and 
from which I had been absent about 15 years. That part of the country is, 
within itself as unpoetical as any spot of the earth; but still seeing it and its 
objects and inhabitants aroused feelings in me which were certainly poetry ; 
though whether my expression of those feelings is poetry is quite another ques- 
tion. When I got to writing the change of subject divided the thing into four 
little divisions or cantos, the first only of which I send you now, and may send 
the others hereafter. 


Yours, truly, 
A. LINCOLN. 


173928—20——2 


18 STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 


(The poetry referred to is as follows:) 


My childhood’s home I see again, 
And sadden with the view; 

And still, as memory crowds my brain, 
There’s pleasure in it too. 


O Memory! thou midway world 
"Twixt earth and paradise, 

Where things decayed and loved ones lost 
In dreamy shadows rise. . 


And, freed from all that’s earthly vile, 
Seem hallowed, pure, and bright, 

Like scenes in some enchanted isle 
All bathed in liquid light. ’ 


As dusky mountains please the eye 
When twilight chases day; 

As bugle-notes that, passing by 
In distance die away; 


As leaving some grand waterfall, 
We, lingering, list its roar 

~ So memory will hallow all 
We've known, but know no more. 





Near twenty years have passed away 
Since here I bid farewell 

To woods and fields, and scenes of play, 
And playmates loved so well. 


Where many were, but few remain 
Of old familiar things; 

But seeing them, to mind again 
The lost and absent brings. 


‘ 


The friends I left that parting day, 
How changed, as time has sped! 

Young childhood grown, strong manhood gray, 
And half of all are dead. 


I hear the loved survivors tell 
How nought from death could save, 
Till every sound appears a knell, 
And every spot a grave. 


I range the fields with pensive tread, 
And pace the hollow rooms, 

And feel (companion of the dead) 
I’m living in the tombs. 


Mr. Frss. Mr. Luhring, how far are you from Cincinnati? 

Mr. Luurrne. I don’t know just what the mileage is. 

The Cuatrman. About six or seven hours on the railroad ? 

Mr. Luurine. I would say about that. 

Mr. Frss. How far are you from Louisville? 

Mr. Lunrinc. Not very far from there, perhaps three or four 
hours. 

I thank you, gentlemen, very much. 

The CHarrman. Mr. Rainey, do you care to be heard on your 
bill, H. R. 11495. 


STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 19 


STATEMENT OF HON. HENRY T. RAINEY, A REPRESENTATIVE 
FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS. 


Mr. Ratney. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I 
am asking that this statue which has been rejected and discarded by 
the authorities of the District of Columbia, be reerected in Illinois, 
in a State park maintained by the State of Illinois, near Petersburg, 
and near Springfield, and almost within sight of the tomb of Lincoln. 

Lincoln spent a few uneventful years of his life in Indiana. 
There is not a single Lincoln story of heart interest connected with 
his residence in the State of Indiana, except that his mother died 
there, and that she had the ordinary pioneer funeral of those days; 
and because she died there and the State has established a small park 
about her grave located in the county, I believe, where they do not 
attempt to suppress gambling, at French Lick—— 

Mr. Lunurie (interposing). It is not in that county, if you will 
pardon me. 

Mr. Ratner. I understand from the gentleman that the attraction 
which brings people to that neighborhood is French Lick, the only 
place in the United States where unrestrained gambling continues 
through the entire year. The people who frequent the resorts at 
French Lick, it is contended, may quickly, if they desire, drive out 
in automobiles and visit the grave of Nancy Hanks, and for that 
reason it is insisted that this statue should be located there. 

Among the attractions which bring people to the New Salem State 
Park, in Illinois, is the tomb of Lincoln, 20 miles away, at Spring- 
field. No important personage from any country in the world who 
visits the United States considers his mission completed until he 
visits the tomb of Lincoln. This historic statue, standing on its 
pedestal, 40 feet high, on the New Salem Hill, would in all proba- 
bility: be visible from the city of Springfield, and we may expect 
persons who visit the tomb of Lincoln to drive out over the excellent 
roads of that locality and visit the site of the pioneer village, where 
the great Lincoln spent the formative years of his life. , 

The attractions which bring people to New Salem are the heart 
‘stories connected with Lincoln during the period he lived there. 
Lincoln spent a few uneventful years of his boyhood in Indiana, 
and then came to Illinois and lived near Decatur for a brief period, 
and then came in 1831 to New Salem, at that time a frontier village 
on the Sangamon River, not far from Springfield. The village was | 
settled in 1828. He lived in New Salem until he removed to Spring- 
field. While living there he was elected captain of a company which 
was formed in that locality and went to the Black Hawk War. That 
was his only military service. He was, while he lived there, a candi- 
date for the first time for public office, and was defeated by Peter 
Cartright, the famous pioneer preacher .of those days. But he re- 
ceived, out of the 290 votes cast. in New Salem, where he lived, 277 
votes at that election. It was while he lived there that he fought 
the Clarys’ Grove boys and had the wrestling match with Jack Arm- 
strong, which has become famous among Lincoln stories, and de- 
feated Armstrong because of a foul, which Armstrong admitted he 
perpetrated upon him; Armstrong was honorable enough to admit 


20 STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 


the foul, shaking hands with Lincoln, and from that time on he and 
the Clarys’ Grove boys became the best of friends, and it was the 
Clarys’ Grove boys who were responsible for his election to the cap- 
taincy of the company that went to the Black Hawk War. 

It was during those days that the Clarys’ Grove boys from the 
vicinity of New Salem accompanied him as a guard of honor on his 

campaigns. 

While he lived here he acquired the education which fitted him 
for the service he rendered his country in the hour of its greatest 
danger. 

After he was elected President, Bill Green, who was a clerk in 
the store where Lincoln also worked, came to the White House to 
him. He was introduced by President Lincoln to Mr. Seward as 
the man who taught him grammar in New Salem. Bill was noto- 
riously destitute of any knowledge of grammar, and for fear of 
divulging that fact he would not say a word while Seward remained 
in the room. When he left he said, “Abe, what did you mean by 
telling Mr. Seward that I taught you grammar? You know I don’t 
know anything about grammar.” Lincoln said, “ Don’t you remem- 
ber that you used to hold the book by the candlelight in the old store 
while I repeated the answers? ” 

Bill said, “ Yes; I remember that.” Lincoln said, “That is all 
the grammar I ever studied.” 

Two or three years ago I visited this locality, which is in my con- 
gressional district, and attended the ceremonies connected with the 
celebration of. an anniversary of the founding of the town of Bath, 
which was laid out by Lincoln. While I was there—and this is a 
new Lincoln story—a man come to see me and said, “ The Govern- 
ment owes me some money on account of the service of my brother 
in the Army.” It was quite a little while before I could get the 
facts; he tvas an illiterate man. I found his brother was an officer 
in the Army and had died in Cincinnati in 1856. I said, “ There 
isn’t any way by which you can get a pension.” He said, “I don’t. 
want a pension.” Finally, I found that he had heard of the 
longevity pay granted under a recent act on account of the service 
at West Point of officers in the Army. I said, ‘ Was your brother ~ 
a graduate of West Point?” He-said, “ Yes. nT said, “ Now, how 
did that happen?” He said, “ Why, Abe ’p’inted him.” I said, 
“How did Mr. Lincoln happen to appoint him to West Point?” 
He said, “ Well, when Abe was a candidate against Old Man Cart- 
right for the legislature in Illinois and was defeated, my father 
worked for Abe and tried to bring about his election, and after he 
was defeated, my father saw him, and Abe said to him, ‘If I ever 
get elected to any office and have a job to give away, I am going to 
give it to you.’ ” 

“In 1846, when Lincoln was elected to Congress from that district, 
he came back and hunted up this old pioneer friend of his and 
said, ‘I haven’t forgotten the promise I made to you, but I have 
but one office to give away, and that is an appointment to West 
Point. I can not appoint _ you to that; have you any boy old 
enough?” He said, “ Yes; I have a boy 19 years’ old,” and brought 
in the boy, and Abe says to him, ‘Has he got courage?’ And my 
father said, ‘ Well, last winter when we was hav ing a “dance here at 





STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. oF 


the house, over on the other side of the woods there the Widow 
Jones’s house was in danger from a forest fire, and it was 12 o’clock 
at night, and she came over for help, and none of the boys would 
leave except this boy of mine, and he left and went over and put 
out the fire in the woods.’ Lincoln said, ‘A boy that has enough 
courage to leave the girls at midnight and go through the woods 
and put out a fire for an old widow woman has enough courage to 
go to West Point, and I will appoint him,’ and he did.” 

Petersburg, Ill., was laid out by Lincoln, ‘and soon became a rival 
of New Salem. A few years ago they were surveying a street in 
that city, and they found that the street did not run straight north 
and south; this was a surprise to those who knew about Lincoln’s 
work, and they ran the line over again, but it did not run straight. 
Finally an old resident of Petersburg came and asked them what 
they were doing, and they said, “We found out that this street 
that Lincoln laid out does not run straight.” He said, “I can tell 
you all about that; I carried the chain for him, and we found that 
this line, if run straight, would run through the cabin of an old 
friend of Lincoln’s, and Lincoln said, ‘We will skew this line a 
little.” And they did, and so Lincoln’s reputation as a surveyor 
was saved on account of the recollection of this old gentleman. 

Lincoln came to New Salem, down the ‘Sangamon River, in 1831, 
one of a crew of a flatboat which he, himself, had assisted in build- 
ing at the town of Sangamon, near Springfield. It was loaded with 
cured meats, being destined for New Orleans. This was the first 
boat that ever came down the Sangamon River, and almost the 
last. When the boat reached New Salem—there was a mill there 
with a dam—the current caught the boat and swung it toward the 
bank, and it lodged on the dam. The entire population—there were 
about 25 houses there then—came down to offer all sorts of advice, 
but no one seemed to know how to get the boat off the dam. Lin- 
coln, at that time a raw-boned youth of nearly 22 years of age, 
seemed to be the only man on the shore or on the boat who had any 
executive ability or any ideas about how to get the boat off the 
bank. He unloaded the cargo from the boat. The back of the boat 
was filled with water, and the front of the boat projected over the 
dam. Unloading the cargo allowed the boat:to level up, and he 
took an auger and bored a hole in the front of the boat and allowed 
the water to run out; then he plugged up the hole, righted the boat, 
and it floated safely off the dam. He loaded up his cargo again, 
and the boat proceeded on its voyage. So far as we know, this is the 
first act on Lincoln’s part that showed his executive ability. 

The boat reached New Orleans, and it was on this trip that Lin- 
coln witnessed the selling of slaves in the slave markets in New 
Orleans and announced that if he ever got an opportunity to strike 
a blow at that thing he would strike it hard. 

Now, there was formed, a number of years ago, a+ Chautauqua 
Association for the purpose of purchasing the site of New Salem 
for the establishment of this park. William Randolph Hearst was 
at that time a Member of Congress. I make this story public now for 
the first time—he has never made it public himself, and I am almost 
violating a confidence in mentioning it. I told him that this asso- 
ciation had never been able to get enough money together to buy 


22 STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 


the site of New Salem, and that a brewing company, at Springfield, 
was trying to get an option on the property, and that they proposed 
to establish a beer garden there and bring people down the rivers 
on Sundays to visit the place. To prevent this William Randolph 
Hearst immediately bought the property and turned it over to the 
Chautauqua Association. This association afterwards transferred the 
title to the State of Illinois, and the great State of Illinois accepted 
the trust and has assumed the burden of maintaining it as a State 
park. Some of the old pioneers, a few of them lived there when 
Lincoln was there, and still live in that locality, have planned to re- 
produce in New Salem, the historic village, as nearly as possible— 
the Rutledge Hotel, and the famous grocery store, and the other inter- 
esting pioneer structures. They have reerected some of these struc- 
tures just where the buildings stood originally. 

This is a plat [exhibiting paper] of the village of New Salem re- 
stored by.the pioneers. And you will notice No. 9 there on the plat 
is the Rutledge Hotel where Ann Rutledge lived; just across is the 
jancoln and Berry store, where Lincoln kept store; and just below 
that is the place where he had his wrestling match with Jack Arm- 
strong while the Clary’s Grove boys looked on. Jack Armstrong is 
. dead, but one of his brothers, I think, is still living in that locality. 
It was one of the Armstrongs who was’tried for murder at Beards- 
town, a few miles from New Salem, Lincoln defended him for noth- 
ing, and produced at that trial the calendar which proved that the 
night of the murder was a moonlight night and it was not the dark 
of the moon as the witnesses had stated, and this resulted in the 
acquittal of Armstrong. 

Mr. Fess. Was Ann Rutledge buried here? 

Mr. Rarney. She is buried a few miles from there in a country 
eraveyard. 

Mr. Luurime. Pardon me, didn’t they remove her body from the 
original burying place? 

Mr. Ratnry. I am not sure of that. If they did, it was to Peters- 
burg. 

Gn page 14 of the interesting publication you gentlemen are exam- 
ining, is a picture of the New Salem hill, and a view from the hill, 
which will give you'some idea of the beauty of the locality. Ona 
subsequent page you will find a picture of the old log cabin, partly 
fallen down, where Squire Bolling Green lived, just on the edge of 
the village of New Salem, and just under the hill. That log cabin 
is still standing as it appears in that picture; the picture was taken 
recently. It was to this cabin that Squire Green took him wher 
he found him wandering in the woods almost crazed with grief over 
the death of Ann Rutledge, and from that window in the attic of 
the cabin Lincoln looked out through the forest. He spent days 
there mourning for Ann Rutledge. He afterwards stated with ref- 
erence to her, “ My heart is buried in the grave with Ann Rutledge.” 
Squire Green found him in tears one day in the attic when it was 
storming; he went up to Lincoln and tried to comfort him, and 
Lincoln said, as Squire Green reports, “I can not help it; the rain 
is beating on her grave.” 

. The very interesting and splendidly written book you are examin- 
ing is a very recent and exceedingly valuable addition to Lincoln 
literature. It was written by Hon. Thomas P. Reep, of Petersburg, 





STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. vi by: 


Ill. I have no doubt Mr. Reep will be glad to present a copy to each 
member of the committee, with nis compliments. I will leave this 
copy with the committee. 

incoln permanently became a resident of the village of New 
Salem when he was 20 years old, and he was nearly 30 years old when 
he left for Springfield, I]. It was while he lived at New Salem that 
he studied law and became a great lawyer; it was while he lived 
there that he studied surveying, and became an excellent surveyor ; 
it was while he lived there that he studied grammar and became a 
master of the English language; it was while he lived there that he 
became engaged in boating and flatboating and did piloting of 
steamers on the Sangamon River, and he became an expert in that 
occupation. It was in New Salem that he acquired his enthusiasm 
for river improvement, which led to one of the greatest speeches he 
made in Congress. I recall that in that speech, referring to the Hh- 
nois and Michigan Canal, which he promoted always in Illinois, in 
substance he said: “ We read in the papers this morning that a cargo 
of sugar yesterday reached New Fork State, coming from New 
Orleans, all the way by water; therefore, the planter in New Orleans 
got a little more for his sugar, and to-day citizens of New York 
are sweetening their coffee for a little less on account of the fact that 
the State of Illinois has built, wholly within its boundaries, a water- 
way connecting the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers with the Great 
Lakes.” We have been making river-improvement speeches in Con- 
gress since then, but no Member of Congress has ever made a better 
river-improvement speech than he made on that occasion. 

Later, when he was a candidate for an important office, and when 
the county of Sangamon, in which he then lived, had voted against 
him, in writing to a friend he said, “ It is truly gratifying to me to 
learn that while the people of Sangamon have cast me off, my old 
friends in Menard County, who have known me longest and best, 
still stick to me.” | 

Now, the State of Illinois, or the citizens who live in that vicinity, 
one or the other, will pay all the expenses of the removal of this 
monument and the reerection of it in this park, which comprises 
something like 60 acres of land and is situated on a beautiful bluff 
along the Sangamon River, about 2 miles from the city of Peters- 
burg, which is connected by a good road, which soon will be a hard 
road, with Lincoln’s tomb a few miles away. 

I am not impressed with the idea of reerecting this monument at 
some other place in the District of Columbia, at some place which 
the Fine Arts Commission may not approve. The argument for this 
disposition of the statue is that it was paid for largely by the citizens 
here. I have read all the stories published in the Washington papers 
at the time of the dedication of this monument in 1868. I have also 
read everything I could find in the Congressional Record on that 
subject. The monument and the pedestal cost only $10,000. It 
would, of course, cost more now. The Lincoln Memorial Association, 
founded in 1865, a few months after his death, was national in its 
scope. I do not know to what extent citizens outside of the District 
contributed, or what the city of Washington contributed. It is im- 
possible to find accurate data on that subject. 

There is evidence, however, that there was a benefit performance 
held in Ford’s Theater in the city of Baltimore, and the papers, 


24 STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 


while refusing to say how much was realized, state that a very hand- 
some sum was realized, which was added to the Lincoln Monument 
fund; this, together with the subscriptions which were collected in 
various ways, most of them, they say, here in the District of Colum- 
bia, made up the amount necessary to pay for the monument and the 
pedestal, and it was erected in front of the building which now houses 
the courts of the District of Columbia and which was recently re- 
built. 

Now, if this monument is to leave the District of Columbia, and it 
ought to leave the District of Columbia if the authorities here think 
so little of it that they box it up and put it away in some Government 
warehouse—if it leaves the District of Columbia, there is no place 
so appropriate for it as in this State park in the State of Llinois 
within sight: of the tomb of Lincoln, It should be reerected on the 
site where Lincoln spent the formative years of his life; where he 
was educated and where all these interesting Lincoln stories origi- 
nated. 

I thank the committee. 

Mr. Frss. Now, Mr. Rainey, the fact that the monument now is 
in the basement of some building and there seems to have come up 
a controversy here in the District as to where it is to be placed, 
especially with reference to the general plan that might be out- 
lined by the Fine Arts Commission, it would appear that one of the 
dominant motives would be to place it where it would not disfigure 
anything ? 

Mr. Ratney. Yes. 

Mr. Frss. It would appear to me to be rather unsatisfactory to 
place it within the District. 

Mr. Rarney. I think you are right about it. I think it would 
be exceedingly unsatisfactory to place it here in the District, and I 
think it would lead to an annoying situation, perhaps, in attempt- 
ing to get this Fine Arts Commission to locate it somewhere. If 
we could find the original lst of subscribers, I doubt whether the 
suburbs of Washington, which ask for it now and which did not 
exist at all in 1868, except on paper, contributed anything toward its 
completion. It will probably cost as much to take this monument 
out to Illinois and to erect it on those grounds as the monument cost 
in the first place. You can not reerect it here in the District without 
an appropriation for that purpose of at least $6,000 and you gen- 
tlemen know it will be difficult to get that. My bill is drawn so as 
to turn the monument over to the governor of the State of Illinois 
for reerection on this State park, provided the State of Illinois 
furnishes the funds for moving it and erecting it there. I would 
not want to offend the artistic tastes of the Fme Arts Commission 
of Washington by imposing on them longer this monument which 
they have consigned to a warehouse. 

Fhe Cuatrman. Does Mr. Cannon desire to be heard ? 


STATEMENT OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON, A REPRESENTATIVE 
FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS. 


Mr. Cannon. I have a letter asking me to appear, as I am a 
Representative from Illinois. I am near Indiana, within 6 miles 
of the Indiana boundary on the east, and my county, with several 


STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 25 


counties reaching the Indiana line, was a part of the old ninth 
judicial district. Lincoln’s home was at Springfield, and David 
Davis was the circuit judge for a good many years in that circuit, 
and he was a friend of Lincoln, a close personal and political friend, 
and Davis managed his campaign for him at Decatur where Lincoln 
spent several years before he went to Springfield; managed his cam- 
paign in Menard County, and surrounding counties. 

My acquaintance with Lincoln was personal. I first saw him at 
Charleston, at the Lincoln-Douglas debate and meeting there. I 
did not meet him, except to hear him speak, and to hurrah for Lin- 
coln. Two Kentuckians presided at that meeting, one a Republican 
and the other a Democrat. Orlando B. Ficklin, a personal friend 
of his, presided for the Democrats, and Mr. James R. Cunningham, 
a large landowner, presided for the Republicans. 
~ Everybody knew Lincoln, whether they had met him or not. I 
was in that convention which was a contest between Seward and 
Lincoln for the delegation from Illinois, and Lincoln won out. I 
met him there. I met him subsequently, also, as he was going to 
Coles County to see his stepmother, since dead, and buried down 
where Lincoln’s father, Thomas Lincoln, is buried. I was fairly well 
acquainted with him from hearing the men, women, and children 
talking about him, as I practiced law as a young man in several of 
the counties of the old ninth district, and as Lincoln went about there 
in a buggy or on a horse from one county to another. 

I grew up in Indiana; had the honor, fortune, or misfortune—and 
I regard it as a fortune, of being born in North Carolina, and emi- 
grated, the family did, in 1840 to Indiana. 

Lincoln was a western product. Born in Kentucky; lived in Indi- 
ana; lived at Decatur in Illinois; lived at New Salem, in Illinois, 
where he had his first love, and I think that your first love is a very 
dear love to you. That is all I want to say about it. 

I think Illinois claims the credit of, perhaps, prior to his becoming 
President, of having more to do with Lincoln, and Lincoln with 
Illinois, and reaching somewhat over into Indiana, than any other 
State. I have very kindly feelings toward Indiana. I wish there 
were two of these monuments. I would like to see one of them 
where Lincoln’s mother is buried, and I would like to see the other 
over there in my friend’s district, Representative Rainey’s. The 
God’s truth is many monuments might be erected to show to the on- 
coming generations that here was a man of the people that became 
the greatest character since Washington. He was poor; Washington 
had a strain of aristocracy in him, but this man was of the people 
and made his great record for a Republic. AIl the great issues which 
had to be met in this country, and the solution of those great prob- 
lems, was only possible under such leadership. 

T do not think this is a very good monument. T never examined it 
critically, and then I am not an artist if I had. The Lincoln Memo- 
rial is here. I suppose this monument is the flotsam, or jetsam, 
whichever is the correct term to use; it doesn’t belong to anybody, so 
far as can be ascertained. Of course, I should be elad to see it erected - 
near where his first love died. Then, true of the memories of my 
early life, Indiana, if perchance it should be erected near where his 
mother was buried, I am content; but if I was a member of this com- 


26 STATUE ‘OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 


mittee and was going to do anything about it, I suppose I would 
vote for Illinois. That is about all I have to say about it. 

We can not do anything now to add to Lincoln’s achievements and 
his career after death. His achievements in the history of the Re- 
public and in the history of worlds will add to his fame. Al these 
monuments dwell in history in black and white. The achievements 
of great men dwell in history. We can not do anything to add to 
his after death; reputation for his great leadership, and it is only 
important as we mark this place and that place and the other place to 
affect the oncoming generations. 

A little incident, and then I will close with what I have to say. 
When I came to Washington in the Forty-third Congress—the second 
time that I had been in Washington—it was in 1873, and I walked 
with a friend and a Member, elected new, as I was elected new, and 
we were looking over Washington, and we came around walking all 
around the Capitol, and stood over the south wing of the Capitol, 
and he said to me, “ Cannon, I was in Washington before the war 
fairly commenced; when it was seen they were going to have war.” 
I’rom the same neighborhood came a young fellow, like myself, who 
was young, and as we marched around and stopped he said, “ My 
God! look at this Capitol; the Capito! of the United States. God 
forbid that I should fail to-do my part in preserving it as the capital 
of the United States, taking in the South and the North, and for this 
I am willing to die, adding my mite.” He was attacked inside of a 
month with typhoid fever and did die. Rather an affecting incident 
to me, about this Member of Congress that had just been elected for 
the first time, it being also my first term. That is the use of mionu- 
ments. How many people have an inspiration when they look at the 
Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial; a great memo- 
rial? I have more satisfaction, I think, from my long public life, 
when I stop to think about it, that I was on the commission and 
helped to care for the commission in its appropriations and the loca- 
tion of the Lincoln Memorial. It is somewhere or other in the rec- 
ords that I was on that commission and am a member of it, and the 
only chance I have to dwell in history is, “ Well, here is the com- 
mission under which this great monument to Lincoln was erected.” 

The Cuatrman. Mr. King, do you want to be heard? 

Mr. Kine. I would like to be heard, Mr. Chairman. on behalf of 
the resolution which I introduced, known as House joint resolution 
282. 


STATEMENT OF HON. EDWARD J. KING, A REPRESENTATIVE 
FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS. 


Mr. Kine. I think this is the only resolution which prescribes that 
this statue shall be put back in the spot, and the exact spot from 
which it was taken. I have quite a good deal to say here, and I will 
not weary the committee, but if the committee wants to adjourn be- 
fore I shall have concluded my remarks, I shall be glad if the com- 
mittee will give me a little further time at some future time, if I 
do not finish. | | 

I regard this question as almost a personal matter to every citizen. 
of the country. It has been stated here that the people of the Dis- 
trict of Columbia have been cold toward this statue, have been cold 


STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. . eT 
toward this proposition, and it has been called a piece of flotsam or 
jetsam, a piece of public property. 

Now, let us see what happened; see whether the people of Wash- 
ington had any notice of what was going on. Here are the hear- 
ings, on page 291, of the hearings on the first deficiency appropria- 
tion bill of the Sixty-sixth Congress. Mr. Gillen was testifying, 
and take that testimony given with reference to the removal of this 
statue, and compare it with the history of the erection of this statue, 
and see what—— . 

Mr. Jounson (interposing). Who is Mr. Gillen? 

Mr. Kine. I don’t know who he is. | 

The Crrairman. He is a member of the Commission on Public 
Buildings and Grounds. 

Mr. Kine (reading) : 

The CHAIRMAN. You have an item for the removal of the Lincoln statue. 
Will you explain that item? 

Mr. GILLEN. The statue is to be removed and placed in the-basement of the 
courthouse, 

In other words, having placed the statue of Frederick the Great 
in the basement of the War College they are to place the statue of 
Lincoln in the basement of the courthouse. [Continuing reading :] 

The CHAIRMAN. What do you want to put it in the basement for? 

Mr. GILLEN. Well, they do not know where they want it. 

The CHAIRMAN. You are just going to store it there? 

Mr. GI“ten. Yes, sir. 

The The CHarRMAN. What is the matter with leaving it where it is? 

Mr. GrrreN. It is on a very insecure foundation and the pedestal proper has a 
very bad crack. 

The CHatrRMAN. How much do you estimate it would cost to remove that 
statue? 

Mr. GILLEN. $2,000, including storing it. 

The CHAmMAN. It has never been considered a very satisfactory monument 
or pedestal for Lincoln? 

Mr. GiLteNn. No, sir. 

The CHAIrRMAN. Artists and men competent to judge have regarded it as 
worthless as a statue? 

Mr. Griiten. Yes, sir. 

That is all the testimony there was on the subject. The House never 
had any notice of that, unless they had specially read that hearing, 
and what happened to the report? [Reading :] 

Public buildings and grounds; for construction of walks and service road and 
the restoration and planting of grounds around the courthouse in Judiciary 
Park, including the removal of the statue, $23,445, one-half of which shall be 
paid from the revenues of the District of Columbia and one-half from the Treas- 
ury of the United States. 

They did not even say in that report, so that Members of the House 
could have any notice of it, that it was the removal of the Lincoln 
Statue. 

The Cuairman. Were there any other statues there? 

Mr. Kine. On the grounds and in that vicinity? 

The CHarrmMan. Yes. 

Mr. Kine. I could not say. I have been through there a great 
many times. 

There was no harm in apprising the Members of Congress of what 
was going on. I am not blaming the committee in this in the 
slightest degree. »But there has for a long time, an attempt being 


28. STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 


made in the city of Washington designed to remove statues of a num- 
ber of our great men. <Alre ady the statue of Admiral Dupont is gone, 
-and at the suggestion of some one, the statue of a justice of the peace 
or some Supreme Court justice is to be placed there instead of the 
“mighty Lincoln. 

Mr. Frss. Do you remember, Mr. King, whether this item, when 
it was discussed on the floor, brought out the fact that it was a 
Lincoln statue? 

Mr. Kine. It was not brought out, and it was passed 55 to 0, 
showing there was not a quorum in the House. 

Mr. Fess. What I wanted to know was whether in the mass of 
matter that is reported by one of these committees, whether the 
Members of the House knew that it was a Lincoln statue? 

Mr. Kine. No, sir; there is nothing that I can find in the hear- 
ings or elsewhere that I can find that would indicate that this 
famous statue was the one that was to be removed. Of course, we 
could have gone down and seen it, but we had no notice. 

Mr. Frss. My inquiry is prompted by the fact that I did not 
know that the Lincoln statue was being removed. 

Mr. Kine. No, sir; none of the Members of the House knew it, 1 
am satisfied. 

Now, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I have here a 
copy of the Evening Star—a photostat copy of the Evening Star 
of Wednesday, April 15, 1868-—which gives a complete record of this 
statue, its manufacture, the work of the sculptor, and the whole pro- 
position, and the dedicatory exercises, from which I desire to quote 
parts of it, and if the committee desires 1t—it is a very valuable: 
document, to have it inserted in the record for the information of 
others; I would like to have it inserted. 

Mr. Fess. I suggest, Mr. Chairman, if it is not a duplication of 
what Mr. Luhring placed in the record, that it be done. 

Mr. Kine. I was not here when Mr. Luhring began. 

Mr. Luurine. I think perhaps the article you have, Mr. King,. 
contains the address. 

Mr. Kine. Yes; it does. 

Mr. Luurine. I did not have that. 

Mr. Krne. Not only the address, but the proceedings of the en- 
tire day. 

Mr. Lunrine. I had the proceedings of the common council and 
the names of the committee. 

Mr. Kine. That would cover perhaps a half column of this 
article, which might be repetition. 

This statue was paid for, according to this article in the Star— 
and the truth of it I have no doubt “of—by the citizens of Wash- 
ington, except such as was contributed by Mr. Ford, who gave the 
proceeds from an entertainment held at his theater in Baltimore. 
Mr. Noyes, who was the owner of this paper, and the father of 
Mr. Theodore Noyes. now of the Star, was secretary of the com-. 
mittee. Mr. Riggs, founder of the Riggs National Bank, was the 
treasurer. I talked with Mr. Noyes, whose father, Crosby Noyes, 
was secretary, about the matter, and he said that outside of what 
was contributed by Mr. Ford the amount was raised by the citizens 
of Washington. It was designed at first to have a national associa- . 
tion to which everybody could contribute, but there were then so. 





STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 29 


many projects going on to erect memorials that the contributions 
did not come in rapidly, and for that reason the money was raised 
by the citizens of Washington. 

Mr. Frss. How much money was raised ? 

Mr. Kine. There is nothing in this paper to indicate how much 
money was raised. But it is said that a great many models in 
clay were submitted to the committee having that in charge, and 
this one was selected as being superior to all the others submitted at 
that time. It is said it only cost $10,000. If it cost that amount at 
that time, it would probably cost $100,000 now. 

I do not know whether it is an artistic monument or not. That 
is not, I take it, the question. This marks a most historic spot in 
the history of the Nation. You might as well wipe out the place 
where the Pilgrim Fathers landed as to wipe out the place where 
this marker stood. This marker, I am informed, marks the place of 
the old auction block where slaves were auctioned in Washington. 
The story told by Mr. Rainey about the sale of the slave girl in 
New Orleans fits in nicely with this history, and the people of 
Washington selected that particular spot on which to erect that 
particular monument—the first one that was ever erected to his 
memory. There never was a ceremony here in Washington of such 
historic moment. 

Mr. Fess. Is that your impression, Mr. King, that it is the spot-of 
the auction block where slaves were sold? 

Mr. Krne. T have a witness, whose name I am willing to give to 
the committee, if they desire, to that effect. Some of it is folklore, 
bnt it is not all folklore. I would give the name to the committee, 
if they desire. Of course, he was a former general in the Army 
and is an old man now. He must have heard some discussions to 
that effect. Of course, that matter could be investigated, but there 
must have been some reason why it was placed in that particular 
spot in the city of Washington when there were some other spots that 
would have done just exactly as well. One thing that indicated that 
ond confirmed that in my mind was the great audience that appeared 
there on that day, about 52 years ago the 15th day of April coming, 
ond the crowd was estimated at from 15,000 to 20,000 persons— 
the largest gathering of people ever assembled in Washington on 
euch an occasion—and lined back of the monument, clear back 
through the park, were colored people—ex-slaves. 

Now, that might have been some proof of this fact, and perhaps 
not. I do not desire to perpetuate the memory of any auction block 
in this country. Perhaps the sooner it is wiped out the better. But 
I do appreciate the memory of this great man. Among those pres- 
ent at the ceremony were Gen. Grant and Gen. Howard, and Presi- 
dent Johnson and some Members of the Senate and some of the 
House, and soldiers were in that great crowd; and I do appreciate 
their sentiments and thoughts at that time, just about the close of 
the great war and the anniversary of the assassination, three years 
before, of the great President. 

This corner stone was laid by the Masonic order with quite profuse 
ceremonies—the usual ones—using the regular ritual, largely inter- 
polated here and there by references to Lincoln. <A large parade 
formed at the corner of Ninth and D Streets, consisting of thousands 


30 STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 


of people, including the Good Templars—so popular in those days-— 
and the Knights of Pythias, some secret societies, and 15 or 20 bands, 
all marched up there to the monument, which had been veiled the 
night before by Mr. Lot Flannery, who was at that time a great 
sculptor. The band played the new—now old—tune from “The 
Bohemian Girl,” “The Heart Bowed Down,” the words of which 
many of us know. ‘“ But memory is the only friend that grief can 
call its own.” | 

I am not going to be long, Mr. Chairman, but I will ask the com- 
mittee to give me further time, unless the committee is ready now 
to vote out my resolution or unless you force me to quit. 

The CHarrman. We are not going to force you at all; but we do 
- want to finish these hearings on these other bills. 

Mr. Kine. I appreciate that, but I should like to have the commit- 
tee give me a few minutes some other time, if possible. 

Mr. Fess. Who was the orator on that day, Mr. King? 

Mr. Kine. Mr. B. B. French, and he delivered one of the greatest 
orations ever delivered on Lincoln. I have read it several times. 
This monument was reared by Lincoln’s personal friends. This Mr. 
French was a Commissioner of Public Grounds, and was often at the 
White House with Mr. Lincoln. He tells a lot of great stories de- 
lineating his character, and so forth; and he was with him when he 
was on his death bed at the old house in Tenth Street. He was a 
close personal friend. 

This money was contributed by his personal friends, people whom 
he had lived among for a number of years. : 

The CuarrMan. I suppose you have heard the arguments in regard 
to the removal of the statue, because it is not in keeping with the 
erading, etc. Now, what practical suggestions would you have? 
~ Mr. Kine. I don’t know what kind of a pedestal should be put 
there. I am not an architect by any means. Of course, the old ped- 
estal was too high and too tall. Buta base could be erected there, it. 
seems to me, in perfect harmony with the surroundings. <A large part 
of the monument was in the base, anyway. It could be in perfect. 
harmony with the surroundings, so that it would not have an inartis- 
tic effect, cut down low; I have no suggestions to make. This idea of 
taking it to Fort Stevens in the country where he happened to go at 
one time to witness a battle has no value. 

The CHarrMan. The Superintendent of Public Buildings and 
Grounds says: 

As you doubtless know, the courthouse building was recently remodeled 
under the direction of Mr. Elliott Woods, the Superintendent of the Capitol 
Building and Grounds. The monument stood partly within the limits of 
Judiciary Park and partly on the sidewalk, and base of the monument was ona 
mound of earth 5 or 6 feet above the sidewalk. It became very desirable, 
therefore, in restoring the grounds around the building to either lower the base 
to the ground and change the location of the monoment or to remove it en- 
tirely. This question was submitted to the Commission of Fine Arts for its 
consideration. They recommended that the monument be removed, as it was 
entirely out of scale with the fine courthouse building and could not be put on a 
lower pedestal because it was cut to be viewed at the height at which it 
originally stood. 


Mr. Kine. Could it not be put on a lower pedestal ? 
The CuarrMan. Yes. 


* 


STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ae 


Mr. Kina. If they say that is true, it is true. But it is simply a 
statue of Lincoln standing there with his one hand upon the Roman 
Facii and the other hand sort of open as the artist had seen him many 
times in making an address, sort of open in this manner [indicat- 
ing], why should that be so inharmonious with this courthouse? Is 
there any particular class of beauty or architectural beauty that is 
necessary to conform with an old rebuilt courthouse? They had far 
better have made it in harmony with Lincoln’s statue, than to try to 
make Lincoln’s statue conform to the courthouse. You can not tell me 
that there is not an artist that can construct a pedestal there and let 
it stand there forever as intended by the forefathers without making 
it inharmonious with the other buildings and grounds. 

T have some things here from Gen. Miles, and I wanted to read 
three or four letters from people of the District of Columbia. I 
will not take time to do it now. 

Mr. Fess. Why not put them into the record, or do you want to 
comment on them? 

Mr. Kine. Of course, I do not care to comment on them. I cer- 
tainly would like to put this article from the Star in the record. 

The CrarrmMan. Without objection, the reporter will insert it in 
the record at this point. 

(The article referred to is here printed in full, as follows:) 


EXHIsiT A. 


[From The Evening Star, Washington, D. C., Wednesday, Apr. 15, 1868.] 





THe DEATH oF LINCOLN—TRIBUTE OF THE CITIZENS OF WASHINGTON TO His 
MEMORY—THE CEREMONIES Tio-DAY—DEDICATION OF THE LINCOLN MONU- 
MENT—MASONIC CEREMONIES—UNVEILING OF THE STATUTE—ADDRESS OF HON. 
B. B. FRENCH. 


Three years ago this morning, at 7 o’clock, Abraham Lincoln breathed his 
last. The anniversary of that sorrowful day will be marked in various ways 
throughout the country, but nowhere with deeper feelings than in the city of 
Washington, where the martyred dead is remembered with so much of personal 
respect and affection. The department business is suspended to-day, as well 
as that of the municipal officers, and the public schools are closed in order to 
afford opportunity to all to witness the dedication of the monument to the 
memory of Abraham Lincoln, raised by the citizens of Washington in front of 
the city hall. Flags are displayed at half-mast, and the heavy boom of half- 
hour guns serve to remind the most thoughtless of the solemnity of the occasion. 
The morning opened dark and gloomy, but lightened up to some extent as the 
hour for the dedication ceremonies approached. 


THE LINCOLN NATIONAL MONUMENT ASSOCIATION, 


At this time it may be of interest to give a brief history of the association 
through whose instrumentality the present monument to the memory of 
Abraham Lincoln was raised. In April, 1865, on motion of Mr. N. D. Larner, 
of the city councils, a joint committee was appointed by the councils to take 
action in reference to the erection of a monument in the city of Washington to 
the memory of Abraham Lincoln. This committee met at the mayor’s office on 
the 28th of April, 1865, and formed itself into an association to be called the 
Lincoln National Monument Association, to carry out the objects proposed by 
the formation of the committee. Subsequently, the following officers were 
elected for the association: President, Richard Wallach, mayor; Secretary, 
Crosby S. Noyes; Treasurer, George W. Riggs; Directors—Joseph F. Brown, 
Asbury Lloyd, John B. Turton, Dr. W. G. H. Newman, George H. Plant, Z. 
Richards, N. D. Larner, E. C. Carrington, John P. Pepper, S. J. Bowen, George 
F. Gulick, B. B. French, George R. Ruff, Charles C. Morris, John G. Dudley, 


32 STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 


John H. Semmes, James Kelley, William P. Ferguson, 8. P. Brown, Dr. C. H. 
Nichols, Henry Addison, William H. Tenney. 

To these were added a number of honorary directors, mostly Members of 
Congress, one from each State, as it was hoped at that time to secure a national 
subseription to the end of raising a monument at the National Capitol, the 
most suitable place, properly commemorative of the life and character of the 
lamented deceased. Owing, however, to the springing up of kindred associa- 
tions in almost every State and city in the country, this hope was not realized, 
and with the exception of some contributions from Baltimore, among which 
was a handsome sum from John T. Ford, Esq., the proceeds of a benefit for 
the monument fund, given at his Baltimore theater, little, if anything was con- 
tributed outside of Washington. The money raised was, however, carefully 
husbanded, and was invested by the treasurer, Mr. Riggs, in Government regis- 
tered bonds. The sum raised was, of course, inadequate to erect a monument 
on anything like the seale originally proposed, but was yet sufficient to raise a 
monument in the shape of a shaft and statue, creditable to the city; and it 
was determined by the associaion that this was the best course to pursue. Mr. 
Lot Flannery, of this city, who has achieved a number of successes in his art, 
among which is the admired monument over the victims of the arsenal explo- 
sion at the Congressional Cemetery, was the successful competitor for the work, 
and the result is before the public. 


THE MONUMENT. 


The monument is about 40 feet in height to the top of the statue. It rests on 
a solid foundation of blue rock 6 feet in depth. The base is an octagon, 6 feet 
in height and about 7 feet from side to side, on which the base of the column 
rests, the lower part corresponding with the base, and the upper part with the 
shaft, being circular and molded. The shaft is 18 feet in height, with an 
average diameter of 3 feet (tapering), and is surmounted by a molded cap, 
4 feet square and two feet thick, on which rests the base of the statue, and the 
statue itself. The figure at this height looks to be about life-size, and stands 
facing south. It represents Lincoln standing with his left hand resting on the 
emblem of Union—the Roman facile—his head erect. with a slight inclination 
forward, and right hand partially open, as in the attitude he was wont to take 
in addressing an audience. The design was first made in clay by Mr. Flannery 
last summer, and was subsequently cast in plaster. The model attracted much 
atteution as a spirited design and excellert likeness. The encomiums bestowed 
upon his design induced him to submit it to the managers of the Monument 
Association, and the result was that it was unanimously selected from the 
various designs and models before the committee as the best offered. <A 
contract was entered into with him by which he agreed to have the monument 
ready by the 15th of April, 1868, the anniversary of Mr. Lincoln’s death. He 
has since devoted himself to the work, and the reproduction in marble is held 
to be greatly superior to the model. Last night, between 7 and 8 o’clock, the 
veiled statue was removed from the studio of Mr. Flannery, on Massachusetts 
Avenue, to the site of the Monument in front of the City Hall. It had been 
designed to raise it to its pedestal last night, to be in readiness for the cere- 
monies of to-day, but in consequence of the unfavorable weather and the 
darkness of the night it was thought prudent to postpone an undertaking of so 
much delicacy until daylight. This morning it was safely raised to the top of 
the column upon which it is to stand. Some little work yet remains to be done 
about the base of the monument, which it is proposed to extend with the beauti- 
ful Tennessee marble, and an iron railing is to be placed around the monument. 
resting on a substantial foundation of stone. 


HOISTING OF THE STATUE AND PREPARATIONS. 


The statve wr” not moved from the studio until late yesterday afternoon, 
and it was landed near the pedestal about 6 o’clock, where it remained dur- 
ing the night in charge of some of the workmen, and a small detail of police, 
to prevent curious parties from interfering with the covering, the design being 
to keep it veiled until the time arrived for throwing it off. At daylight this 
morning, the Messrs. Flannery were on the ground with their force, and the 
ropes being made fast to the statue, it was set securely on the top of the 
pedestal by 7 o’clock. Even at this hour there was quite a number of per- 
sons present anxious to get a glimpse of it, but in this they were disappointed. 


STATUE OF ABRAHAM. LINCOLN. 83 


Subsequently, the hoisting apparatus, which was kindly loaned the artist 
by Capt. Mullet, architect of the Treasury extension, and Mr, Clark, archi- 
tect of the Capitol, was so placed as not to obscure the view, the time being 
so short that it could not be removed altogether. 

Messrs. Downing & Bro. were also early on the ground with a force of 
workmen, and during the forenoon had a platform erected 64 feet in length, 
16 feet deep, and 6 feet in height for the accommodation of those invited to 
be present. 

THE PROCESSION. 


The procession formed at the corner of Ninth and D Streets, and about 1.50 
o'clock the line of march was taken up, when some of the members of No, 2 
Stream Engine Co. commenced to fire a salute from a field piece in front of 
the engine house. The right of the line was by the Grand Lodge of Masons, 
with members of the subordinate lodges, marshaled by A. M. Howard, and 
headed by the Marine Band. The Sons of Temperance and Good Templars 
followed, Mr. John S. Hollingshead marshaling the former, assisted by George 
D. Egleston, of Metropolitan Division, W. H. Gonzalves, W. H. Harrison, C. 
H. Frost, J. S. Erly, J. W. Roberts, of Good Samaritan, and W. H. Chase. 
The band of the Twelfth United States Infantry headed the Sons, the Grand 
Lodge having the right of the line, followed by delegates of all the subordinate 
divisions. The beautiful flag of Federal City and fine banner of Good Samari- 
tan Divisions were in line. 

The Temple of Honor followed, marshaled by J. S. Stokes. 

The Good Templars came next, the Grand Lodge being at the right of the 
line, followed by a number of the members of the subordinate lodges, mar- 
shaled by W. P. White, C. T. of Harmony Lodge, headed by Heald’s Band of 
17 pieces. 

The Grand Lodge of the United States of the Knights of Pythias, now hold- 
ing a session at Odd Fellows’ Hall, Navy Yard, formed at the hall, and with 
members of the subordinate lodges marched direct to the city hall, reaching the 
grounds before the main procession arrived. 


AT THE CITY HALL. 


During the forenoon workmen were busily engaged in erecting a stand be- 
tween the monument and the curbstone, 52 by 16 feet, capable of seating 
about 400 persons. From the flagstaff on the City Hall the national colors 
were displayed at half mast, and the corporation offices were all closed at 
12 o’clock. The large derrick had been removed from over the monument, and 
everything in readiness for the ceremony before 1 o’clock.. The crowd began 
to gather about 12 o’clock, and in less than an hour the steps and portico of 
the City Hall were densely packed. 

By 2 o’clock the entire space in front of the city hall was crowded, while 
the housetops and windows of the houses opposite were filled with human 
beings. All the sanitary police, under Lieut. Noonan, were on duty. No one 
was allowed upon the stand except those who had been invited by the com- 
mittee. About 400 invitations were issued by Mayor Wallach and the com- 
mittee to Cabinet ministers, heads of bureaus, Army and Navy officers, mem- 
bers of the .diplomatic corps, and other distinguished persons. Invitations 
were also issued to the Senate and House of Representatives, but owing to 
the impeachment trial it was impossible for them to attend. Mayor Wallach 
this morning received the following letter from Speaker Colfax: 


HouSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
April 13, 1868. 
RicHARD WALLACH, Esq., 
Chairman, ete. 


' Srr: I am directed by the House of Representatives, before whom I have 
this day laid your invitation to be present on the occasion of unveiling and 
dedicating the statue of the late President Abraham Lincoln, to inform you 
that on account of a standing order requiring their presence in the Senate 
Chamber at the time indicated, they are compelled to decline the same. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
SCHUYLER COLFAX, 

Speaker, House of Representatives. 
173928—20——3 | 


34 STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 


Among those present were President Johnson, accompanied by Col. Rives and 
Mr. Kershaw; Barron Gerolt, Mr. Rangabee, the Grecian Minister; Maj. Gen. 
Hancock and Gen. Mitchell, Gen. Emory, Col. Capron, commissioner of agri- 
culture; Ambrosio Abeita, Alezandro Padilla, governor of the Pueblos of 
Isleta (one of the 19 villages of the tribe in New Mexico; John Ward, agent; 
Gen. O. O. Howard, Mr. Cantazalli, secretary Italian Legation; Admiral Rad- 
ford, Assistant Attorney General Binckley, Gen. Charles Thomas and Gen. 
Morris S. Miller, Gen. Carr, of Gen. Emory’s staff; Gen. 8S. F. Carey, of Ohio; 
John Hitz, Esq., Dr. John B. Blake. 

Gen. Grant was present, and occupied a position on the sidewalk in front of 
Mr. Bradley’s office, declining to take a seat upon the stand. 


THE CROWD. 


The assemblage was very large, and commenced to assemble in front of the 
city hall long before the hour for the ceremonies. At 2 p. m. the crowd, 
despite the rain, had so increased as to extend down Four-and-a-half Street 
below the Presbyterian Church, down Louisiana Avenue, beyond Fifth Street, 
and an equal distance down Indiana Avenue. The open space at the inter- 
section of these streets was densely packed, and the steps, areas, roof, and 
windows of the City Hall Building were closely occupied. The roofs and win- 
dows of all the buildings in the neighborhood Were thronged, and the boys, as 
usual, secured eligible positions in the treetops. The attendance of colored 
people was very large, filling the space in the rear of the stand. There were 
probably from 15,000 to 20,000 present. It was undoubtedly the largest gather- 
ing of people ever assembled in Washington on such an occasion. 


THE PROGRAM, 


The following was the program of the ceremonies: Prayer by Rev. Dr. 
Hamilton; Music, by the Twelfth Infantry Band; dedication of the statue by 
the Masonic fraternity ; music by the Marine Band; address by B. B. French, 
Esq.; music by Twenfth Infantry Band; unveiling of the statue by the Presi- 
dent of the United States; music by the Marine Band; introduction of the 
artist ; benediction. 

THE CEREMONIES. 


After the arrival of the procession on the ground and order had been restored, 
Mayor Wallach presiding, Rev. Dr. William Hamilton offered up a fervent 
prayer. After the band of the Twelfth United States Infantry had performed 
“The Heart Bowed Down,” from the ‘‘ Bohemian Girl,” the dedication cere- 
monies followed. 

THE MASONIC DEDICATION. 


The Masonic Order proceeded to perform the dedicatory services of the craft, 
as follows: 

GRAND MASTER (Benjamin B. French). Right Worshipful Junior Grand 
Warden, what is the jewel of your office? 

JUNIOR GRAND WARDEN (Joseph B. Will). The plumb, Most Worshipful. 

GRAND MAstTer. Have you applied the plumb to such parts of the base of this 
pedestal as should be plumb? 

JUNIOR GRAND WARDEN (applying the plumb). I have, Most Worshipful, and 
the craftsmen have done their duty. 

Granp Master. Right Worshipful Senior Grand Warden, what is the jewel 
of your office? 

Sentor GRAND WARDEN (John H. Russell). The level, Most Worshipful. 

Granp Master. Have you applied the level to such parts of the base of this 
pedestal as should be level? 

Sentorn GRAND WARDEN (applying the level). I have, Most Worshipful, and 
the craftsmen have done their duty. 

GRAND MAstER. Right Worshipful Deputy Grand Master, you will now apply 
the proper architectural instrument to the base of this pedestal and see if the 
several angles thereof are duly and properly formed. 

Deputy GRAND Master (John Lockie) (applying the bevel). Most Worship- 
ful Grand Master, I have applied the bevel to the several angles of the base 
of this pedestal, and find that the craftsmen have done their duty. 


STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 35 


GRAND MAstTeErR. As the implements of architecture, in the hands of the skill- 
ful operative mason, enable him to prepare and adjust the sundry materials 
of which the complete structure is composed, so do they, in the hands of en- 
lightened and accepted speculative Masons, teach them to prepare their 
minds as living stones for that spiritual building, that “house not made with 
hands, eternal in the Heavens.” 

(The deputy grand master presented the corn. ) 

GRAND MAstTer. Brethren, the corn, wine, and oil, which you carry.in your 
processions and which are the consecrating elements used on occasions like 
this, are to remind us that in the pilgrimage of life we are to impart a portion 
of our bread to the hungry, to send a cup of our wine to cheer the sorrowful, 
and to pour the healing oil of consolation into the wounds which sickness hath 
made in the bodies or affliction hath rent in the hearts of our fellow men. 

In placing the corn upon the foundation of this statue I invoke the blessing 
of plenty on the people of this city and upon the people of our whole country. 
Especially may they never want for that bread for which to eat is life eternal, 

(The senior grand warden presented the wine.) 
~ GRAND Master. In pouriag the wine upon it, I do it in the fervent hope that 
the wine of joy may ever gladden the hearts of the people everywhere. 

{The junior grand warden presented the oil.) 

GRAND Master. In pouring oil upon the foundation of this statue, I hope and 
pray that its healing element may spread all over the face of this land and, 
like oil upon the troubled waters, calm the waves of discord and be conducive to 
that peace, harmony, brotherly love, and sincere affection, assuring happiness 
to all, that we believe would have rejoiced the heart of the good man whose 
semblance it supports had the will of God been that he should have lived to 
look once more upon a united people. 

May the consolation of the gospel of the Prince of Peace accompany. us all 
through life and illumine our pathway as we pass through the dark valley of 
the shadow of death. 

The grand master gave three raps with his gavel on the foundation and 
made the announcement: “I now pronounce this foundation properly prepared, 
well laid, true and trusty; and this statue, .erected by the citizens of Wash- 
ington to the memory of Abraham Lincoln, duly and fully dedicated to the 
American people.” [Applause.] 

The Marine Band then performed the Miserere from “ Trovatore.” 


ADDRESS BY B. B. FRENCH, ESQ. 


B. B. French, Esq., the orator of the day, then addressed the assemblage, as 
follows: 

We have met here this day, my fellow citizens, to dedicate to the people of 
the United States here, in the central part of their own Capital, the form and 
semblance of one who they dearly loved in life. and whose memory they can 
never cease to revere; who three years ago this day yielded up his life a 
martyr to his love of his country, his love of his fellow men, and his unshaken 
confidence in the affection and reverence for his person of all around him. 

The statue which we now inawgurate is emphatically the offering of the 
citizens of Washington to the - memory of the man whose form and features 
it represents: 

In April, 1865, the councils of the city adopted a resolution unanimously 
appointing a committee to consist of the mayor and three members of each 
board for the purpose of forming a Washington Lincoln Monument Association. 
That committee, in conformity with the resolution, elected a large number of 
their most respectable citizens, who, with the original committee, formed 
the association, with the Hon. Richard Wallach. mayor, as president: Cc. S. 
Noyes, Esq., as secretary ; and George W. Riggs, Esq., as treasurer. Subscrip- 
tions were solicited from the citizens of Washington and a sum sufficient to 
secure the erection of the statue was obtained. °A contract was entered into 
with Mr. Lot Flannery, of Washington, to furnish the sta tue, and it now stands 
before you the work of his hands. 

Who can ever forget that night of horror when the awful intelligence was 
borne by the telegraphie wires all through the land that Abraham Lincoln had 
been struck down by the hands of an assassin. 


* Oh, night of woe, 
“How are you joined with hell in triple knot.” 


36 STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 


And that day of grief which followed, when the messenger of death went 
forth with the sad tidings that our good President was no longer on earth— 
can it be forgotten? There is not one within the reach of my voice—and I 
think I may truly add, there is not one in this broad land—to whom it is not 
a wonder and a mystery how the people bore up as they did under so terrible, 
So appalling a calamity. But they did bear up, and although the President 
whom they almost adored was dead, the Nation lived. And let me say here, 
that I believe nothing save the final disruption of ‘‘the great globe itself” 
can destroy this Nation. The providence of God watches over us, sustains us 
through all our trials, and will preserve us as a free and independent people 
through all time. 

It does not require any monument or any words to perpetuate the memory 
of that great and good and pure man. Monumental marble may crumble into 
dust; bronze may melt away; granite may perish from the earth; but the 
memory of Abraham Lincoln shall live in human bosoms and be perpetuated 
on the living pages of history as long as any nation or people shall exist on 
earth. [Applause. ] 

But it is a satisfaction and a pleasure, tinged with melancholy, to look upon 
that venerated form and to view those features which, whatever else they may 
indicate, if true to the life, will glow with goodness, kindness, and love, and 
whereon never rested for a moment a single characteristic other than such as 
gave outward proof of a good and loving heart, a conscience yoid of offense, 
and charity toward all mankind. Oh, heaven, that such a man should have 
died in such a time and in such a manner! 

I hardly know, my fellow citizens, where to begin on an occasion like this. 
Although the field is ample it has been thoroughly gleaned by the pen of the 
historian and the harvest has been garnered in the bosoms of a loving people. 
Stil I am aware of your affection for his memory, and that you never tire in 
listening to a rehearsal of his virtues. [Cries of ‘“ Never! ”’] 

Abraham Lincoln was unlike any other man. He seemed to be born to. fill 
the very station he occupied for the last five years of his life and the faith 
that was in us stands firm to this day that he alone could have carried the 
country safely through the awful perils that beset it while he filled the respon- 
sible and dangerous position of Chief Magistrate. [Cries of ‘“ That’s so.’’] 
We can say of him with as much truth as it was said of one of the greatest 
and best of English statesmen, he was, indeed— 


The pilot weathered the storm. 


Let us attempt to analyze the man. He was possessed of a heart as pure 
as the snowflake as it falls from above. Although of great simplicity of mind 
and manner, there was in that mind a penetration which seemed to read the 
very thoughts of others, and which spoke through the eye in language more 
powerful than could be uttered in words, a defiance to any one who sought to 
deceive him. I have heard it called ** shrewdness.” It was more than shrewd- 
ness, and I hardly know how otherwise to characterize it, but in the strong 
language of the Apostle, as the “sword of the Spirit,’ for as I have myself 
seen the searching, powerful, inquisitive expression of that remarkable eye 
when turned upon one whose statement the President had cause to doubt, it 
has seemed to me to pierce the buckler of deception through and through, and 
that the wearer was conscious of his discomfiture before a word was uttered. 

With a disposition as genial as a bright May morning, with a temper that 
could hardly be ruffled by the most untoward circumstances, with a soul abso- 
lutely beaming through the eyes, with an affection that captivated every one, 
he was possessed of a firmness of purpose, in his determination to do right, that 
could not be overcome. 

Pride of place was unknown to his character. To him that spark of the 
eternal which gleamed in the bosom of the most humble shone as bright as if 
it animated the breast of the proudest and highest in the land; and the widow 
and the fatherless ever found a ready listener to the tale of distress, and never 
left him without words of consolation and acts which spoke louder than words. 

Even the language he used was as peculiar to him as was any other peculiarity 
of his nature—terse, pointed, plain; never wandering among the mazes of 
rhetoric after adornment, but simple as the man himself, and going as straight 
to the mark at which he aimed as an arrow from the bow of Tell. Solomon, 
in all the glory of his proverbs, might have envied him had he lived in these 
days of diffusive writing and still more diffusive speaking! 


STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 37 


That single sentence in his last inaugural coming up undefiled from the pure 

well of his noble heart—‘‘ With malice toward none; with charity for all; with 
firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive.on to finish 
the work we are in’’—spoke the character of the man, and will live among the 
sayings of great and good men as long as human lips can speak or types can 
print; and as we read it now, we can scarcely repress a tear as we reflect how 
soon after it was said the voice that Bald it was silenced forever, and the work 
that he was in was finished. 
The first we know of Abraham ror as a national man is that he came 
into the House of Representatives of the United States, as a Member from 
Tllinois, at the first session of the Thirtieth Congress on the first Monday of 
December, 1847. He served through that Congress without any particular 
distinction, except that he was regarded as an honest, kind hearted, genial, 
mirth-loving man, popular with all who knew him, and the few speeches he 
then made, indicated a man of no inconsiderable talent. But no one, as I 
think, mistrusted the hidden mine of ability which existed under the unpretend- 
ing exterior. 

In the spirited canvass between him and the lamented Douglas, in 1858, he 
so conducted his part in the controversy, as to convince his eloquent and talented 
competitor that he had “a foeman worthy of his steel,” and the eyes of the whole 
people were turned upon him as “ the rising man.” 

Whenever the people begin really to love a man, when he has fairly stolen 
away their hearts, they invariably bestow upon him a pet name. I believe I 
may say that the homelier the name the better the individual is beloved. So 
we find in the annals of those days that “ Honest Old Abe,” as a synonym for 
Abraham Lincoln, began to be a household phrase. There is probably no better 
indication of the loves of the people—the real genuine affection of the masses— 
for men, than in this pet nomenclature that they give. We can readily call to 
mind ‘The Father of his Country,” “ The Mill Boy of the Slashes,” “ Old Hick- 
ory,” “The Defender of the Constitution,” “ Old Zack,” with his “little more 
grape Capt. Bragg,’ ‘“ Old Ironsides,” and many more. But we must return 
to the subject of our remarks. 

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was nominated as the Republican candidate for 
President of the United States, and the nomination was hailed throughout the 
loyal portion of the Union with an enthusiasm that gave assurance that he was 
truly the candidate of the friends of the Federal Government. He was triumph- 
antly elected; and his election was, as we all know, the signal for the com- 
mencement of that dreadful effort to dissolve the Union, that ended in four 
years of disastrous war, and the final triumph of the old flag, but at a terrible 
sacrifice of human life, and an immense expense of national treasure. Through 
this fratricidal war, Abraham Lincoln stood at the head of the Government, 
calm, cool, firm, and determined. Ever hopeful, in the darkest hours of the 
struggle, and never for a moment ceasing to place his trust in that 





Divinity that shapes our ends, 
Rough hew them how we will. 


But the history of those dreadful years has been so many times written, and 
is so familiar to you all, that it would be a trespass upon your time and patience 
to repeat it here. I shall, therefore, content myself by saying that President 
Lincoln was found grandly equal to the great trust reposed in him, and per- 
formed every duty with a heroic firmness which met the admiration of all his 
friends. 

But, while I refrain from recapitulating to you the public history that 
marked the momentous era of his term of office, I will endeavor to interest you 
by relations touching his more private life and character, some of which, in 
consequence of the official relations, which, for nearly his entire occupancy of 
the presidential chair existed between us, are probably known to no other per- 
son. No week passed that I did not see him, and I was often with him many 
times a week. This, of course, with a man like him, led to numerous conversa- 
tions between us, and enabled me, with no particular intention of doing so, to 
observe the peculiar characteristics of Mr. Lincoln. 

I will take the liberty, however, before commencing that part of my address, 
to give you a brief account of the inauguration ceremonies of March 4, 1861, as 
written down by myself at the time, I having been honored with the chief 
iarshalship of the occasion : 

“At a few minutes after 11, the procession being formed in line, in front of 
the City Hall, wheeled out into column of march and moved toward Willard’s. 


38 STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 


In front of Willard’s it again formed into line, and so remained until 10 min- 
utes past 12, where President Buchanan, who had been detained at the Capitol 
by official duty, arrived. He, with President Lincoln, Col. Baker, and Mr. 
Pearce, of the Senate, then took their seats in an open carriage, which was 
received into the column of march with a proper salute from the military, 
music, and the cheering of the populace. The column then moved toward the 
Capitol. No more imposing or more orderly pageant ever passed along Penn- 
sylvania Avenue. At the north door of the Capitol the President and President 
elect were received and escorted in. In a few minutes they, with their attend- 
ants, appeared on the platform of the eastern portico, when Mr. Lincoln deliv- 
ered his inaugural, and was sworn into office. * * * 

“The inauguration ceremonies over, we escorted the new President to the 
White House, where he received all comers with that cordial welcome that so 
strongly marks the sincerity of the man. 

““In the procession was a triumphal car splendidly trimmed, ornamented, and 
arranged, in which rode 84 young girls. On our return the girls all alighted, 
and I conducted them in and introduced them to the President. He wished to 
be allowed to kiss them all, and did so. It was a very interesting scene and 
elicited much applause.” The kisses bestowed by that good man on those young 
lips will only be forgotten when death has set his seal upon them. Such was 
the peaceful inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, which so many had prophesied 
could never be accomplished without the shedding of human blood! What I 
shall now say is from memoranda made at the time. 

In August, 1862, just before the second battle of Bull Run, in a conversation 
with the President, he asked me my age. I gave it to him, when he remarked, 
with much emphasis, “10 years older than I am, and 10 years younger.” If 
replied that he must not view his own years so disparagingly, when he repeated, 
“Yes, Mr. French, I am actually 10 years older than you are, the cares and 
troubles that are upon me are ageing me rapidly—I feel it, and you will live to 
see me in my coffin.” This was said with deep solemnity, so much so that I 
felt sad and tried to speak cheering words. Never in all my intercourse with 
Mr. Lincoln, except on this occasion and upon the death of his son William, did 
I witness any manifestation in words of despondency or grief. When Willie 
died, although he bore himself like a man and a Christian, his affections would 
assume their control over his sterner self at times and nature have her way. 

As an evidence of Mr, Lincoln’s power over his feelings, I will mention that 
on arriving at the Executive Mansion on Monday evening, March 2, 1863, to 
attend the reception then to take place, the President informed me that he had 
just received the news of the capture of our steam ram Indianola; but, said he, 
“it is known to no one else here, and as I do not wish it known until the 
reception is over, please not to mention it.” He made some further remarks as 
to the misfortunes that were ‘befalling us. The visitors commenced arriving, 
and he stood there shaking hands and conversing in his usual cordial and 
pleasant manner until the reception was over, when he turned to me and said, 
““T am glad this reception is over; I have been assuming a cheerfulness that I 
could not feel, for I could not forget that we have lost the Indianola.” 

That President Lincoln was beloved by every loyal heart we all know, but I 
can not refrain from copying from my own description of the dedication of 
the National Cemetery at Gettysburg the following: 

“As soon as the hymn (the consecration hymn) was sung, Marshal Lamon 
introduced the President of the United States, who, in a few brief but most 
appropriate words, dedicated the cemetery. Abraham Lincoln is‘the idol of the 
American people at this moment. Anyone who saw and heard, as I did, the 
hurricane of applause that met his every movement at Gettysburg would know 
that he lived in every heart. It was no cold, faint shadow of a kind reception ; 
it was a tumultuous outpouring of exultation from true and loving hearts at 
the sight of a man whom everyone knew to be honest and true and sincere in 
every act of his life and every pulsation of his heart. It was the spontaneous 
outburst of the heartfelt confidence of the people in their own President.” 

Perhaps no living man ever had a keener relish for the ludicrous than Mr. 
Lincoln, and his power of illustration by story and anecdote was beyond that of 
anyone with whom I was ever acquainted; and such was the tendency of his 
mind to mirth that I have known him, when a grave question was propounded 
to him, to reply to it by relating some story perfectly illustrative of the answer 
required, but of such a nature that no one could resist an audible expres- 
sion of merriment, in which he was certain most heartily to join, and although 
the Surplus electricity of his nature seemed ever ready to pass off in a manner 


STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. | 39 


to make all around him innocently happy, he was ever careful to guard against 
injury to the feelings of any human being. And I think I can give you the 
assurance that not one in a hundred of the gross stories that are now imputed to 
him were ever even heard of by him. 

To recall any of the illustrations that I have heard from his lips would be 
out of place here; but I can not refrain from stating one of his quaint and 
humorous pieces of advice to me, which you will all appreciate. The basement 
of the Executive Mansion was at one time so infested with rats as to render it 
almost uninhabitable. I called the President’s attention to the fact, and he 
said to me, with that inimitable twinkle of the eye and expression of the coun- 
tenance so remarkable in him, ‘‘ Can you not procure a ferret, one of those little 
fellows that drive away the rats? And while you are about it, perhaps it 
would be well to get several and distribute them about the departments, for. 
there are rats everywhere!” And the good President was so pleased with the 
idea that he asked me afterwards if I had got those ferrets. 

The kindness of his disposition and his readiness to indulge his children may 
be illustrated by two occurrences that fell under my own observation. The 
preparations had all been made for the family to leave the city house and estab- 
lish themselves for the summer at the Soldiers’ Home. The carriage was at 
the door and Mrs. Lincoln and Tad were in it. The President came out to join 
them, when Tad said, ‘‘I have not got my cat.” The President replied, “ You 
shall have your cat,” and he went into the household and returned in a few 
minutes with Tad’s cat in his arms. ‘ 

At another time when I was with him in his office, conversing on official busi- 
ness, one of the servants came in and spoke to him. He at once turned to me 
and asked me to excuse him for a short time, and he must go and give Tad 
his medicine, which he would take from no one else. 

Such acts as these do honor to human nature, no matter whether done by 
Presidents or peasants; everyone who has a soul will appreciate them, and I 
have thought a thousand times, as I have seen the evidences of the minute atten- 
tion given by the great and good Washington to the smallest matters that con- 
cerned his household and his home, while leading the armies of the United 
States or exercising the high functions of President of the infant Republic, how 
like in many particulars were these two truly great Presidents. 

Although President Lincoln was always ready to assume any Official respon- 
sibility that his position required, his innate sense of propriety was such that he 
never, knowingly, encroached on the prerogatives of his subordinates, no matter 
what their position might be. A somewhat curious instance of the delicacy of 
the President in this particular occurred in November, 1864. The day after the 
certain information of Mr. Lincoln’s reelection reached this city it occurred to 
him that the laborers at the Executive Mansion ought to be granted a holiday. 
Almost any other man, being President of the United States and possessing the 
power to command would have issued an order giving them a holiday. Presi- 
dent Lincoln did no such thing, and what was my surprise at receiving a card 
from him, in his well-known hand, and which I now have: 

“Tf Commissioner of Public Buildings chooses to give laborers at White House 
a holiday I have no objections. 

“A. LINCOLN. 

‘** NOVEMBER 9, 1864.” 


Of course, the commissioner did choose, and the holiday was given. 

The autographs of the beloved President are eagerly sought for and highly 
valued, and as an evidence of this, I may say that I have seen a simple card, 
similar to the one above alluded to, on which some request was written by Mr. 
Lincoln, elegantly framed and suspended in the library of a gentleman in Mas- 
sachusetts, and considered so precious a memorial that no money can purchase 
it. And the last manuscript he ever wrote with a pen, on the evening of his 
assassination, is sacredly preserved, in like manner, in this city by the gentle- 
man for whom it was written. I do not know how I can more appropriately 
close this, perhaps already too long address, than by reading an article prepared 
by myself for one of the city newspapers on the 23d of April, 1865. It is as 
follows: 

“On Friday morning last, at 7 o’clock, all that was mortal of Abraham 
Lineoln,. the sixteenth President of these United States, was borne from the 
Capitol, taking their departure for his home in Illinois, where they are fo rest 
until the final resurrection. 


AQ) STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 


“The past week has been a sad one to the whole Nation. It has been particu- 
larly sad for Washington, for here the unparallelled atrocity that deprived a 
people of a President whom they dearly loved and almost worshipped, and 
came near snatching from them a Secretary of State, particularly eminent for 
a head and a heart that gave him an exalted place in the affections of all who 
knew him, was committed; and as the awful news spread abroad on the 
wings of the lightning it carried with it sadness to every heart that beat 
responsive to the great principles of humanity which were so strongly implanted 
in the bosom of our beloved Chief Magistrate. 

“At half past-10 o’clock on Friday evening, the 14th instant, the bullet of 
the assassin sped through the brain of his illustrious victim, and from that 
instant he was as if he were dead, although he continued to breathe until the 
next morning at 22 minutes past 7. ‘ 

“That Friday night was an awful one for Washington. The theater where 
the horrid event occurred was filled with people, and the appalling news spread, 
as it were, in a moment to all parts of the city. There was no sleep that night. 
The long roll—that startling call to all military men and to all civilians who 
understand it—was beat in the various camps within and about the city, and 
the troops were speedily under arms. 


Ah! then and there was hurrying to and fro, 
And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress, 
And cheeks all pale, which, but an hour ago, 
Blushed at the praise of their own loveliness. 


* * Be * * 
And there was mounting in hot haste; the steed, 
The mustering squadron, and the clattering car 


Went pouring forward with impetuous speed, 
And swiftly forming in the ranks of war. 


“Many knew not for a time what it all meant, but everyone knew that some 
terrible calamity was upon us; and ere long the dread reality that our Presi- 
dent had been assassinated and our Secretary of State stricken down by the 
dagger of some fiend in human shape came to be known, and a cordon of troops 
was soon posted all around the city to prevent, if possible, any egress from it 
and be prepared for any emergency that an extended conspiracy might render 
necessary. 

“There was a general rush of our citizens to Tenth Street, where in a dwell- 
ing opposite the theater lay the dying form of Abraham Lincoln, surrounded 
by his almost distracted wife, his weeping son, his Cabinet ministers, generals, 
eminent physicians, and many others whose positions gained them ready admit- 
tance to the side of the dying President. 

*“T stood at his bedside in the early hours of the morning, and there wit- 
nessed such a scene of solemnity and grief as I never saw before and hope 
never to see again— 

There was silence deep as death, 
And the boldest held his breath. 


as if it were almost sacrilege to interrupt the solemn stillness about that 
dieing couch. 

“The stern Secretary of War sat with his head bowed down in grief; the 
good and kind Secretary of the Navy stood as if transfixed with sorrow; the 
ever mild and sunny countenances of the Secretary of the Treasury, the Seere- 
tary of the Interior, the Postmaster General, and Attorney General were now 
overspread with the clouds of distress and mourning; Maj. Gen. Halleck, who 
had naturally assumed the direction of affairs, was quietly moving about, fixing 
his large and most expressive eyes on everything that seemed to require atten- 
tion and dirécting in whispering tones of sadness what should be done. The 
noble form of Sumner, seated near the head of the bed, was bowed low, and 
tears were flowing from many, many eyes unused to weep. 

“Not long after sunrise, I should think (time could not well be counted, and 
the heavens were weeping in a gentle rain), at the request of some of the per- 
sonal friends of Mrs. Lincoln, I went in the President’s carriage after Mrs. Sec- 
retary Welles, and ere I could return the noble martyr had ceased breathing. 
I witnessed the bearing of the remains to the presidential mansion, saw them 
removed from the temporary coffin in which they were borne there, and from 
that time until they were placed in the car at the railroad depot, for trans- 
portation to Illinois, I was much of the time with them. My official duties 
made me almost one of the President’s household, and on all public occasions 


STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 4] 


I stood at his side or near him, and I felt as if. even had duty not demanded 
my presence, I could not leave the inanimate form of him of whom I had seen 
se much, and whom I loved so well in life. 

“The days of preparation passed by; the lying in state in the Hast Room, 
where thousands stood at the side of their beloved and martyred chief and paid 
to his memory the tribute of respect with streaming eyes; the funeral services, 
attended by the noble assemblage of all who aided the Executive in the per- 
formance of his arduous duties in Washington—hundreds of the most respect- 
able civilians of the country; the full diplomatic corps, whose rich dresses 
were in marked contrast to their sad, sad countenances, for they all loved 
Abraham Lincoln—the mourners, not only of the family but from his native 
and his adopted State; the reverend clergy in full numbers.’ I witnessed it all. 

‘T listened with a most melancholy but proud satisfaction to the religious 
services, full of submissive piety, but also full of exalted patriotism. I saw the 
immense concourse of people, civil and military, who crowded Pennsylvania 
Avenue from Georgetown to the Capitol, as the funeral cortege passed along, 
marking by their bowed forms and their sighs and tears their deep grief at the 
less of one whom they had looked upon as their father. I saw the sacred 
yemains deposited on the catalfalque in the center of the rotunda of the Capitol, 
with the semblages of grief all around it, and heard the pious and eloquent 
divine, who had been from the first at the side of the departed and his mourn- 
ing family (Dr. Gurley), repeat with great impressiveness, earnestness, and 
devotion so much of the burial service as was appropriate, ending with a prayer. 

“The crowd then departed. The guard of honor, which had been ever 
present since the sad catastrophe, consisting at least of one major general and 
his staff. and often of two, were left in charge of the body. 

“At 8 o’clock on Thursday morning the coffin was opened and the crowd 
admitted, and between that time and 10 o'clock in the evening nearly 40,000 
persons looked in sorrow and in tears upon that beloved face. 

“At 6 o’clock a. m. on Friday there were assembled in the rotunda all the 
Cabinet ministers, the committee who were to accompany the remains, Rev. 
Dr. Gurley, Lieut. Gen. Grant and many other high officers of the Army, the 
police of the Capitol, and a few prominent citizens. Dr. Gurley addressed with 
deep fervor and great impressiveness the Throne of Grace, and his prayer 
found a solemn response, I doubt not, in every bosom. 

“The coffin was then closed and was borne by 12 sergeants to the hearse, and 
being escorted by a battalion of the Veteran Reserve Corps was followed by 
Lieut. Gen. Grant and Brig. Gen. Hardee, arm in arm, and many other officers 
of the Army, the Commissioner of Public Buildings and captain of the Capitol 
police, all on foot, and by the President and heads of the departments and 
the committee in carriages to the Baltimore Depot, where it was placed in a 
ear deeply and most appropriately draped in mourning and prepared for the 
wceasion, where the reverend clergyman again offered up a payer to the Father 
of us all; and at 8 o’clock the train moved off, and he whom we all loved 
so. well and for whom we would have willingly given our own lives was borne 
in solemnity and gloom toward his final resting place in the bosom of the 
State who gave him to us.” 

Unveil thy bosom, faithful tomb, 
Take this new treasure to thy trust, 


And give these sacred relics room 
To slumber in the silent dust. 


Thus the remains of Abraham Lincoln left us to find a resting place in the 
«apital of his adopted and beloved home. It was one grand, solemn, and im- 
posing funeral procession from Washington to Illinois, and I have been told by 
a gentleman who accompanied it that no dwelling was passed in all that 
distance, whether the palace of the rich or the humble cottage of the poor, 
that did not exhibit some outward badge of the grief that reigned within. 

And now, my fellow citizens, we have erected, as I believe, the first public 
‘statue to tlie memory of that President, who more than any other since Wash- 
ington, lived and ever will live in the hearts of the loyal people. Here, where 
he won from all who knew him—and who is there who did not know him— 
golden opinions; here where in the midst of his friends, while enjoying a brief 
respite from the cares and perplexities of his exalted but laborious station, 
he was struck down in death by the hand of a foul and cowardly assassin, 
have we this day placed upon its pedestal the plain, unassuming, but almost 
speaking semblance of that plain, unassuming, but noble and god-like specimen 
of human nature. [Applause. | 





49 STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 


We have erected it where the earliest kiss of rosy day, as she approaches 
from the east; may fall upon it, and where the last gleam of evening’s mellow 
light may salute it as the twilight darkens into night. Here it stands, as 1 
were, in the plaza of the city: and here it will stand, we hope, to be seen by 
generations long hence to come. [Cries of “ It will.” | 

Let the fathers of the city, in times of trouble, gather around it, and acquire 
inspiration by calling to mind the firmness, patience, fidelity, zeal, and noble- 
ness of character of him whom it represents. Let the generations of young 
men gather around it, and recall, as their example and their guide, the virtue, 
sobriety, modesty, and uprightness of life and purpose of that great man. And 
let us all bear in mind and ever profit by the remembrance how Abraham 
Lincoln placed all his trust in God, and implored His blessing upon every act 
of his exemplary life! 

* %* * God: called him 
Hence to lay his armor down, 


To take his more than conqueror’s wreath, 
His martyr’s glorious crown. 


In the great hosts of freedom’s sons, 
Our Lincoln leads the van, 

Himself the greatest, “ noblest work 
Of God, an honest man.”’’ 


Arise, then, oh, my country, rise! 
Be worthy of his fame, 

Lift high the banner of the right, 
Put all its foes to shame. 


Follow where Lincoln’s footsteps led— 
His spirit be your own— 

‘Twill lead you on to victory; ‘twill 
Lead you to God's throne! 


| Immense applause. | 

After the address of Maj. French the band of the Twelfth Infantry per- 
formed Rans T’es Vaches. 

Col. E. B. Olmstead was then introduced, and recited an original poem, w hich 
was received with great applause. 


THE UNCOVERING OF THE STATUE. 


Prof. Heald’s Band then performed an appropriate air, when Mayor Wallace 
advanced to the front of the platform with the President and said: 

“My friends, it is hardly necessary for me to inform you what is now to take 
place or who the distinguished person is who will perform this ceremony. The 
anxiety depicted in your upturned countenances plainly tells that you are 
awaiting the unveiling of the statue.” 

The President then pulled the cord, when the covering of the statue torr 
and vociferous cheers were given by the crowd. 

Mr. Lot Flannery, the artist, was here introduced and loudly cheered. 

The Marine Band then performed a prayer by Donizetti, after which Rev. 
Dr. Gillette pronounced the benediction and the crowd dispersed. 

Mr. Kine. I would like to offer the latter part of a speech de- 
livered by Gen. Miles before the Society of the Dames of the Loyal 
Legion on February 12. 1920; the latter paragraph, where he speaks 
of the removal of ‘this monument, and the four stanzas of poetry 
which the general read with reference thereto. 

Mr. Jonnson. Before that is inserted in the record I would like to 
read it. 

Mr. Fess. Mr. King, do you know whether there is .any-kind of a 
statue to Lincoln in New Salem, Il., or not; I forgot to ask Mr. 
Rainey ? 

Mr. Kine. I do not know, Doctor, whether there is or not. 1 
hardly think there is. There are a oreat many places where there is 
none. If I was going to have it put. in Illinois, I would like to have 
it put on the east wing of Knox College, in Galesburg, where the 
greatest Lincoln-Douglas debate took place. 


STATUR OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 43 


Mr. Jonnson. There never would have been any Abraham Lincoln 
unless he had been born; why not put it where he was born—in 
Kentucky ¢ 

Mr. Kring. I think it ought to go on the spot where it was put, a 
most historical spot. That is a personal feeling with me. To have 
taken it down was a good deal like the drunken youths of Greece 
used to do, going around with sticks, knocking the noses off the 
statues in the city of Athens. It is the spirit of the iconoclast, a man 
who has no sentiment, that would seek to remove a monument of this 
kind. 

The Cuatrman. Mr. Graham, we will hear you if you care to be 
heard. 


STATEMENT OF HON. WILLIAM J. GRAHAM, A REPRESENTATIVE 
FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS. 


Mr. Granam. About the 1st of December last, I received a com- 
munication from a gentleman in Moline, Ill., in my district, calling 
my attention to the fact that there had appear red in one of the church 
magazines, an article stating that there was a statue of Abraham 
Lincoln which was about to be disposed of and that it was to be 
given away, and that Col. Ridley had charge of it. After my atten- 
tion was called to it in that manner, I investigated it and found 
that Col. Ridley was in charge of the ‘public buildings and grounds 
of the District.” He is an officer of the Engineer Corps of the Army.” 
At that time this statue had not been removed. In fact, nothing had 
been done toward its removal, except a clause had been made in 
the deficiency appropriation act making some provision for its re- 
moval. 

We had a conference with Col. Ridley, and he told us they were 
going to remove the statue, and so far as he knew they were not go- 
ing to reerect it any place else, and so far as he knew there was 
no reason why it should not go to some other city. I wanted to be 
sure of it before I did anything about it, and after this conference 
with Col. Ridley I prepared and filed this bill. You will observe 
that it was introduced on the 11th day of December, and it was the 
first bill introduced in Congress seeking disposition of this statue. 
It was referred to this committee on my request. I knew this com- 
mittee would attend to it, and rather than have it referred to one 
of the larger committees, the Judiciary Committee, perhaps, I asked 
to have it referred here; and after my bill was referred to this 
committee these other bills and resolutions have also been referred 
to this committee. It may have been their proper jurisdiction, but 
I requested to have it referred here. 

My bill antedated by a month any other bill introduced on that 
subject. I do not know whether the committee attaches any impor- 
tance to that or not. On the 14th of December, there was an arti- 
cle in he papers here that the city of Moline was trying to get this 
statue, and thereafter a number of bills and similar resolutions were 
introduced. 

Now, I have heard what Mr. Rainey has said about this matter. 
I would like very much to join with Mr. Rainey in this matter. 
However, I have my own community to look after, and they have 
asked me to get this statue, and they have some claims for it. 


44 STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 


The Cuarrman. Have any petitions been filed by you, Mr. Graham / 

Mr. Granam. No petitions have been filed. I have here a state- 
ment in writing by the mayor of the city of Moline that they will 
take care of the expenses. Now, I want to say to you why I did not 
file any petitions—if I had thought the committee had desired it, 
T could have had practically the whole city of Moline sign a petition 
for it, but I did not suppose the committee desired it. 

Some time after I introduced this bill I had a talk with a very 
prominent Member of Congress from my State, telling him that I 
had filed a bill asking that this statue be given to the city of Moline. 
He violently protested against that kind “of legislation and told me 
at that time it was an outrage for us to think of taking a statue 
out of the District of Columbia that had been built by contributions 
of money by the people of the District of Columbia, and intimated 
to me that he would strenuously oppose anything of that kind. 

Mr. Fess. Is that still his opinion ? . 

Mr. Granam. That is still his opinion. I know when it gets out 
on the floor of the House that there will be a strenuous contest 
against it, if it does get out. However, gentlement, if this committee 
is to report some legislation, I want you to give some consideration 
and attention to the claims of my people in this matter, I think my 
introducing my bill when I did, and the attention my people had 
given to the matter entitles them to some consideration in it. 

Mr. Frss. How was Mr. Lincoln associated with the history of 
* Moline? 

Mr. Granam. I will tell you; it is a very interesting story: Moline 
and Rock Island, you know, are side by side; you can not tell where 
one city leaves off and the other begins; a street divides them. 
They are towns of about 30,000 inhabitants each. Across the river 
is Davenport, Iowa. Originally, there was an Indian city located 
there, a city of the Sacs and Foxes, at one time a city of over 5,000 
inhabitants. It was a permanent city, and they had at this place 
their cornfields and that sort of thing, and had been living there 
for hundreds of years. I can take you to places there where even 
now the old Indian corn hills can be found. Along the south side 
of this town is a high range of hills, and one is called Black Hawk’s 
Watch Tower; there he used to live; it was the seat of his tribal 
authority, and the people lived down below in the valleys. 

When the Black Hawk War broke out, Abraham Lincoln was 
captain of a company of Volunteers and was in that war. Lincoln 
was sworn into the service in Moline, was given his oath by Gen. 
Atkinson, and had charge of his company in that war. Lincoln 
came up there, and it is a remarkable fact that one of the other men 
that came up there with a company of Volunteers was Jefferson 
Davis. There they first met and had their first association, an asso- 
ciation that was to be afterwards so tragic. This is the military 
service of which Lincoln used to jokingly. say that he, too, was a 
military hero, having fought mosquitoes in the Black Hawk War. 

Dred Scott lived in Moline. He was in the household of a doctor 
there; and it was his residence in Moline that occasioned the fight 
that he made in which he claimed that he was a free man, because 
of his residence in Moline at the residence of that doctor, who was 
located there. 


STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 47 


Mr. Fess. Dr. Emerson ? 

Mr. Granam. Yes; that is where he lived. 

The ereat Rock Island Arsenal, the greatest arsenal we have, is 
located midway between Moline and Davenport; and on an island 
in the river, an island of 1,000 acres or more, with many millions 
of dollars’ worth of buildings on it and thousands of men working 
there. The Government built a great housing project in that com- 
munity to take care of the thousands of men who are at this time 
working in that arsenal. 

The surroundings there are such as to make it, it seems to me, 
very appropriate that some monument to Lincoln be erected in that 
locality. On this island are two cemeteries—one a cemetery of the 
Union, or Federal, soldiers, and the other the only Confederate 
cemetery in Hlinois, and, so far as I know, in the North. There 
was a prison there during the war, and there are the graves of hun- 
dreds of Federal soldiers there, and also the Confederate soldiers, 
carefully attended and cared for by the United States. 

Mr. Fess. There is one other, in Ohio. 

Mr. Granam. This I imagine to be the largest; it is quite a large 
cemetery. 

Now, the people up there want this statue; they are willing to 
pay all the expenses of. getting it, and they will care for it as 
carefully as possible. . 

I do not know that we have any more claims than anyone else. 
The claims of the New Salem community are good claims. Every- 
where that Lincoln touched is sacred ground. “Every place he lived 
is ground that ought to be marked. Our claims are no greater than. 
the claims of others; but 1f you are going to consider this and are. 
going to take the statue out of the District of Columbia, I hope you 
will give my community proper consideration. I assure you if we 
get it we will take the best of care of it, and it will be of some use. 

Let me suggest this about the statue itself: I have seen it. The 
art is somewhat crude. I sympathize with Mr. King a good deal. 
I am not an iconoclast, and do not believe in disturbing these old. 
landmarks. But they have disturbed this one; they have taken it 
down and have stored it inside of a building or in a warehouse; and 
instead of letting it remain there let us put it some place where it 
will be of some use and an inspiration to the young people of this 
country. J want to say about it that while it is not particularly a 
work of fine art, if it was put out some place on a hill or in the 
center of a large tract of ground, where you could see it, 1t would be 
rather an attractive thing and rather an impressive monument. 
Where it was placed, in front of this building, with no place to look 
at it except to look up, you could not see it. It was not m a good 
location. And if you put it back there, as Mr. King suggests, you 
would have to set it down, and there is criticism of that. It might 
be advisable to put something there, but where it was it did not 
fook well. If you put it where the people can get a comprehensive 
view of it, it would be an historic monument. 

Mr. Fess. Assuming that it will not go back to the place where 
it once stood, would there be any violence in taking it away from 
the District of Columbia, outside of taking it to other places? 


46 STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 


Mr. Grauam. I don’t see how there would. The people of the Dis- 
trict have no more claim on it than the people of the United States 
generally have. While they did contribute a good deal of money to 
it, it was not considered as a District proposition. I do not con- 
sider that any particular violence would be done, and that is why 
I introduced this bill. 

The Cuarrman. Mr. Classon, we will hear you, if you care to be 
heard. 


STATEMENT OF HON. DAVID G. CLASSON, A REPRESENTATIVE 
FROM THE STATE OF WISCONSIN. 


Mr. Criasson. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I introduced the 
second measure for this monument, House joint resolution 269, for 
the city of Green Bay, Wis. 

I feel a little bit overwhelmed by the arguments I have heard this 
morning regarding the hfe and character and history of Abraham 
Lincoln. I represent a modest proposition, and I feel that I really 
represent a dark-horse candidate for this statue. There is no senti- 
mental interest or argument about it. This, possibly, might be a 
reason why the statue should go to Green Bay. 

I was out at Senator Clapp’s home last summer, in Virginia, and 
he told me that he lived in the most remarkable house in Virginia, 
because it was the only one in which Washington had never spent 
a night. So far as I know, Lincoln was never in Green Bay, Wis. 
It is, however, one of the oldest cities in the country. It is the 
site of old Fort Howard, a city now of about 40,000 people; first 
called, in 1634, La Baye Verte; in 1816, Fort Howard; in 1829, 
Navarino; Astor in 1835; and Green Bay since 1838. 

The people of the city of Green Bay, if this statue is to be removed 
from the District of Columbia—which I think it ought not to be— 
will be proud to have it. Personally, I agree with Congressman 
King that the statue ought to be put back where it was—I do not 
like the idea of allowing the people of the District of Columbia to — 
take down this statue—but if it is not to be put back there, I feel 
that it is going to be very hard for this committee to decide between 
the claim of Indiana and the claim of Illinois for this statue. Con- 
sequently, I say, we have a compromise candidate, a dark horse, and 
I can only say to this committee that if the statue is to leave the 
District of Columbia, the city of Green Bay wants it. I have the 
assurance of the mayor and the people of the city of Green Bay that 
they want it and that it will be properly erected and cared for. It 
will be a good way out for the committee and all concerned, if it 
does not stay in the District of Columbia, to send it to Green Bay. 

The Crarrman. Mr. Gillen, is there anything you care to say to 
the Bs SORE R, 

. Gruten. I have nothing to say, Mr. Chairman, unless there 
are some questions. If there are any questions, I would be glad to 
answer any questions. I had charge of taking down the statue. 

a Kine. You did it in consequence of the act of Congress? 

. Guten. Yes, sir. 

Mn Luurinc. When did you do it? 

Mr. Gruten. It was started on the 20th of December, and com- 
pleted about the 10th of January. 


STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 47 


The Crarrman. Just completed ? 

Mr. Gatien. Just completed. 

Mr. Kine. What became of the pedestal ? 

Mr. Giutien. The pedestal is stored right with the statue. 

Mr. Luce. What would it cost to put it up again? 

Mr. Gitten. About $6,000. 

Mr. Fess. In jour judgment is it possible to put it back where it 
was? 

Mr. GitiENn. It is possible, yes, sir; but not advisable. 

Mr. Fess. Well, when I used the word “ possible” I had in mind, 
taking into consideration all the items. 

Mr. Giitien. I would say no. 

Mr. Fess. In all probability then the statue will go elsewhere? 

Mr. Gruen. Very likely. 3 

Mr. Jonnson. If you know, please state who initiated the propo- 
sition to take it down? 

Mr. Gitien. I don’t know. 

Mr. Jounson. When did you first hear of it? 

Mr. Gruen. The question of taking the statue down was first 
mentioned 18 or 20 years ago, due to the fact that it was on an in- 
secure foundation. At that time Congress made an appropriation to 
take the statue down and reerect it on a more stable foundation. 

Mr. Jounson. In the same place? 

Mr. Giuten. In the same place; but the work was never done, be- 
cause the amount appropriated would not cover the expense. 

Mr. Kine. Would the committee allow me to ask a question ? 

The CHairmMan. Yes. 

Mr. Kine. Whose statue is it proposed to erect there in front of 
the city hall? 

Mr. Gruten. I never heard of that until you spoke of it. 

Mr. Kine. Do the gentlemen know there is a movement on by the 
judges who occupy the courthouse to erect the statue of some judge? 

Mr. Giiten. News of that has never reached our office in any way. 

The CuHarrman. In regard to this question of Mr. Johnson’s, I 
have a letter here from Mr. Charles Moore, chairman of the Fine 
Arts Commission, dated February 17, 1920, in which he says: 

Replying to your letter of February 14 relative to the reerection of the statue 
of Abraham Lineoln removed from in front of the District courthouse, I 
would say that the judges occupying that building requested the removal of 
the statue and its relocation on the site where Lincoln was under fire at 
Fort Stevens, at the northern end of Seventh Street. The matter was submit- 
ted to the Commission of Fine Arts, and the commission acquiesced in the 
change. That is all the commission has done in the premises. 

He goes on to state that there are two or three other statues of 
Lincoln now located in the District of Columbia. 

Mr. Granam. Mr. Chairman, have you ever been out to the site 
of Fort Stevens? 

The Cuatrman. No, sir; I don’t know where it is. 

Mr. Granam. Let me tell you. That is back of a schoolhouse, 
and back of it is a row of negro shanties; the ground is not owned 
by the United States. There is a part of a trench or old earthworks 
there, perhaps 200 or 300 yards long—an old trench—and it is all 
grown up with brambles and full of tin cans and all sorts of offal, 
and one of the most distressed places in the District of Columbia— 





48 STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 


one that you have to wind through an alley to get to. Now, you 
couldnt put that thing there without i improving that whole locality. 
It is one of the dirtiest places in the District that I have seen. 
Mr. Lunrrne. Is it within about 3 miles of the Maryland line? 
Mr. Granam. Not that far, hardly. 
Mr. Gruten. About 2 miles. 
Mr. Jomnson. Has anybody out there any property to sell to the 
Government ? 
Mr. Granam. I don’t know whether there is or not, Mr. Johnson, 
but it occurred to me that the committee would not want to put it 
there. I think that is the last part of an old earthworks that is left 
around here, except some in Arlington Cemetery. A part of the old 
earthwork is there. I understand a move has been made to acquire 
that. It would not do to put anything there unless the Government 
buys that and improves it. 
The CratrMan. Are there any other questions the committee 

wants to ask? Mr. Chindblom, you are from Tlinois, have you any- 
thing to say? 


STATEMENT OF HON. CARL R. CHINDBLOM, A REPRESENTATIVE 
FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS. 





Mr. Cuinppiom. It just occurred to me, Mr. Chairman, if this 
statue must go begging, or if there is any question about what is 
to be done with it—while I have not introduced any bill, I will get 
into communication with the proper parties—we have in Chicago 
a Lincoln Park, named after the great President, and while we have 
a splendid statue there, it occurred to me that perhaps this statue 
might be erected somewhere as a sort of an exhibit. 

Mr. Fess. Is that statue St. Gaudens in Lincoln Park? 

Mr. Cutnppiom. Yes, sit. 

Mr. Frss. That is one of the best. 

Mr. Cutnppiom. Since the place where it was erected in the city 
of Washington marked an historic spot, I think it would be well to 
preserve it as an exhibit, as one of the early recollections of the 
National Capital. | 

Mr. Kine. Why not put it in the Museum down here? 

Mr. Curnpsiom. In the National Museum, if there were a proper 
place for it, and the statue could be preserved, LE don’t think that 
would be an altogether foolish suggestion. It seems to me that 
this statue, if it has not the artistic value that some people always 
look for, has an historical value; that it certainly has a great senti- 
mental value, and I am not one of those who reject sentimental 
values by any means. This statue marks an event in the history of 
the city of Washington. It marks an event in the history of the 
Nation. It marks the enthusiasm of the people in the city of Wash- 
ington soon after the death of the great President to do honor to his 
memory, and if it has not any real artistic merit, it certainly has 
these other merits. It may be worth, and I think it is worth, pre- 
serving as an historical exhibit of certain things occuring in the 
National Capital soon after the death of the great President. 

Now, I am not going to offer any suggestions in addition to those 
already made, but if this matter remains open, and there is some 
doubt about what should be done, I know our people, having a park 


STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 49 


dedicated to his memory, would be very glad to have it, and cer- 
tainly would consider it a matter worth preserving for future gen- 
erations. 

For myself, I am inclined to the opinion that the monument should 
remain here in Washington. 

Mr. Jounson. Have you heard just what the real criticism of this 
statue is, that it is not artistic? 

Mr. Cutyppsiom. No, sir; I have not. 

Mr. Jounson. I have heard that the only criticism is that it looks 
too much like Lincoln; that a departure should be made from the 
real likeness of the man, such as they make a departure from the 
likeness of a horse, like they have on the monument at Sheridan 
Circle. 

Mr. Curnpprom. Well, I saw this statue a few times as I passed 
it-in the city of Washington; I observed that it stood on a high 
pedestal, but it never struck me as particularly objectionable from 
the point of view of an artistic production. Of course, technical 
artists can find all kinds of faults with its lines, but it was erected 
for the public, and I do not think the public ever found fault with it. 

Mr. Krve. It looks a good deal more like him than this statue 
which was sent to London; which one was that, Dr. Fess? 

Mr. Fess. That was the Barnard statue. 

May I ask the representative of the District a question or two ¢ 

The CuarrMAn. Yes; certainly. 

Mr. Fess, Do you recall how many statues of Lincoln we have in 
the District already, outside of the two famous ones, the Lincoln 
Memorial and the one in Lincoln Park, the “ Emancipation ” statue? 

Mr. Giuten. Those are the only two I recall. 

Mr. Fess. This one in the Lincoln Park was erected by subscrip- 
‘tions largely from the colored people ? 

Mr. Gitten. Yes, sir. 

Mr. Fess. I notice there are some facial likenesses in the rotunda 
of the Capitol. 

Mr. GiLuen. Yes, sir. 

The CuarrmMan. I would like to ask, What is the physical condition 
of the statue? I understand it is 

Mr. Gitten (interposing). It is of white marble. 

The Cuairman. What is its physical condition ? 

Mr. Gitten. The shaft of the pedestal has a natural seam in it; 
this has opened slightly. There are several pieces of ashlar that have 
opened a little, due to the weather. The diameter of the shaft has 
weathered so that it has been reduced about 1/32 of an inch; disin- 
tegrated; you can see that. In fact, in marble there are certain. 
cracks and streaks usually. It has disintegrated somewhat. 

Mr. Kine. You are speaking now of the pedestal ? 

Mr. GitueNn. Yes, sir. | 

Mr. Kine. What is the condition of the figure? 

Mr. Griten. There is nothing on the figure to show that it has dis- 
integrated, but it must have, because marble will gradually disin- 
tegrate. , A 

The CuHatrmMan. Are the seams on the marble itself or on the 
pedestal ? 

Mr. Gitten. No, sir; just on the pedestal. 


173928—20——4 





50 STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 


Mr. Fess. I notice that the letter from the Fine Arts Commission 
to Chairman Gould says that the judges made the suggestion that it 
be Taaeh ine 

r. GILLEN. Yes, sir. 

Me TFrss. That would indicate that the presence of the statue 
there was undesirable. I presume that that should not be inter- 
preted that they did not want it there, but because it did pace 
to the artistic effect. 

Mr. Gitien. Entirely due to the architectural effect that inane re- 
quest was ever made. 

Mr. Frss. You do net need to answer this if it is embarrassing: 
is there any violence in the removal of the statue outside of the 
District? Take, for example, to another State? 

Mr. Ginien. I can see none myself. 

Mr. Fuss. That is the only thing in my mind, whether it would be 
the right thing to do, or not. T am rather inclined to favor: the 
proposition that it would not be doing a violence to the proper ethics 
of the occasion. 

The CHatrman. Are there any other questions; is there anyone 
else that wants to be heard? 

Are there any motions as to what action the committee should 
take ? 

Mr. Jornson. I move to report out the King resolution, to let this 
statue go back where it came from. 

“Mr. Fess. Mr. Chairman, I am rather inclined to vote-against Mr. 
Johnson’s motion, under the conviction that we would not be doing 
any injury to the people of the District, in view of the magnificent 
memorial that we have out here on the Potomac, and that won- 
derful piece of statuary that is in the memorial, which I saw the. 
other day for the first time. I think it is a most remarkable piece of 
work. And then this other one out in Lincoln Park. I think 
the District is pretty well supphed with the right sort of memorials 
to Lincoln, and in view of the fact that it also is not desired by the 
Fine Arts Commission—I do not know that I dare say by the Fine 
Arts Commission, because they did not initiate it—but there seemed 
to be some reason for remov ing it from where it was, and it is now 
out, and it probably will require some sort of a contest to put it 
back, which will come up on the floor of the House and develop 
more or less bitter controversy over the artistic and architectural 
‘demands of the city, as we have heard often before. 

Mr. Jounson. Dr. Fess, may I ask you, do you believe that when 
this bill passed Congress permitting ‘this statue to be taken down 
that it ever would have passed if the Members of Congress had 
known they were taking down that statue of Lincoln? 

Mr. Fess. Well; I really doubt that, Mr. Johnson, whether it 
would or not. However, it is now done. 

Mr. Jounson. I feel that we never would have consented to it. 

Mr. Frss. However, it 1s now in the basement, and we must take 
a position whether it is to remain there, or to put it back where it 
was, and submit to the controversy here in the District as to where 
it is to go, I am inclined to support the resolution-of Mr. Luhring 
to place it where Mr. Lincoln’s mother lies. The claims of Mr. 
Rainey appeal to me very strongly, since he was in New Salem dur- 
ing nine years, during those wonderful character-making years up 


STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 51 


to when he was about 23. I think he got in there about 1831 or 1832, 
and those years that he spent there were simply remarkable for 
what he became later; and also that touching incident with Ann 
Rutledge appealed to me wonderfully. But I think the strongest 
appeal in the life of Lincoln is his mother, of whom he said, ‘‘ I owe 
all that I am in this life to my mother.” 

And the story that is told about that little family, going across the 
river, 17 miles up in the woods, and there, with their own hands, 
cutting down the poles and bringing them up to the spot where they 
erected that little three-sided cabin: the father chopping the poles 
after the mother had measured off the lengths, and then the father 
and mother, with the little boy of 7 and the little girl of 9, drag- 
ging those poles up to the place and building that cabin, in w hich 
they lived the first winter and which could not receive a stove, be- 
cause there was nothing to carry the smoke out of it, is wonder fully 
touching to me; and when she died 

Mr. Jownson (interposing). Don’t you think, Doctor—if you will 
permit an interruption—that the United States Government ought 
to bear in mind the fact that the United States does not own that 
statue; that we are undertaking to dispose of something that we 
do not own 

Mr. Fess. That may have something to do with it; but I was 
thinking that that is where the matter rests. She was the closest to 
him of all, and he brought this minister a year afterwards from 
Kentucky to deliver a funeral sermon in the woods. There is some- 
thing wonderfully touching to me about that, and I would like to 
see some recognition given to that place. 

Mr. Jonnson. Do you think it ought to be given, however, with 
misappropriated property ? 

Mr. Frss. Well, I don’t think it ought to be with misappropriated 
property. If we did this, I think it would be properly appropriated. 
T move, therefore, Mr. Chairman, a substitute for Mr. Johnson's 
motion, the Luhring resolution. 

Mr. Luce. I move still another substitute: That the Fine Arts 
Commission recommend a place in the District where this statue 
may be erected, with due regard to its artistic character and the 
proper embellishment of the city. 
~ Mr. Jounson. Mr. Chairman, I don’t think that is germane to the 
proposition. I make a point of order against it. 

Mr. Luce. I understand, Mr. Chairman, that in view of the ob- 
jections or judgment in the past as to the artistic embellishment of 
the city of Washington, it has been deemed best to create a Fine 
Arts Commission which shall advise us in these matters, concern- 
ing which, I think we all admit, so far as the artistic matters are 
involved, that we are incompetent to judge. 

The question involved here is one of a similar nature which con- 
fronted the city which in part I represent, the city of Boston, and 
developed many conditions, the disposition of which in some cases 
resulted in unpleasant friction. And finally there we reached the 
same conclusion that previous committees on the Library have 
reached, that, after all, these are matters which should be determined 
by experts so far as the artistic questions are involved, and I should 
prefer to have the judgment of the experts whom we have selected 
te advise us in these matters before we reach a final conclusion in 





52 STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 


this matter. If they tell us that there is not any part of the city 
where this statue can properly be placed, having in mind the proper 
embellishment of the city, then we may consider these other bills 
or resolutions; remembering the story of the young woman who got 
religion and at an experience meeting afterwards she said that she 
found her jewels were dragging her down to hell, and therefore 
she had given them all to her sister. | 

The Cuarrman. The Chair sustains the point of order on Mr. 
Luce’s motion. The question now will be on the substitute motion 
of Mr. Fess to report out the Luhring resolution. 

(The motion was thereupon put by the chairman and was lost.) 

The committee now has before it the motion of Representative 
Johnson to adopt and report out.the King resolution. 

(The motion was thereupon put and was lost.) 

What is the further pleasure of the committee ? 

Mr. Luce. As an original motion, I move that we ask a recom- 
mendation of the Fine Arts Commission as to the possible erection 
of this statue in some place in the city, with due regard to the proper 
embellishment of the city. 

Mr. Jounson. Mr. Chairman, there is nothing before the com- 
mittee to warrant that, as each proposition before the committee 
lames a particular site, and we must deal with one or the other of 
these propositions. A bill or resolution should be introduced ask- 
ing the Fine Arts Commission for its opinion, then a motion could 
be in order concerning it; not until then would it be in order. 

Mr. Luce. Mr. Chairman, Mr. King’s resolution says that it shall 
be erected in the District of Columbia; this is a proposal to amend 
the resolution. 

Mr. Jonnson. But you did not read it all. It says it shall go to 
the same spot where it was. ; 

Mr. Luce. Yes; and this would look to the amendment of Mr. 
King’s resolution, to designate another spot in the District of Co- 
lumbia. 

Mr. Fess. An amendment fixing another spot would be in order. 

Mr. Luce. This is simply to decide, in fact; asking the judgment 
of the Fine Arts Commission before we take action on it. 

Mr. Jounson. I do not think an amendment with reference to an 
unnamed site is in order. I think it would serve your purpose better 
to adjourn. 

Mr. Lucr. As an independent motion, and apart from any bill 
before the committee, I move that we request the opinion of the Fine 
Arts Commission on this matter. 3 

Mr. Jounson. I make the point of order again, Mr. Chairman, 
that there is nothing before the committee to warrant this. A motion 
can not be made, except it be made applicable to something which is 
pending before the committee. 

The CuarrmMan. In the opinion of the parliamentarians would a 
motion to postpone action on this matter until the hearings have 
been printed be in order? Will some one make that motion ? 

Mr. Fess. Mr. Chairman, I move that the further consideration of 
this matter be postponed until after the hearings are printed. 

(The motion being put was carried.) 

(And thereupon, at 12.40 o’clock p. m., the committee adjourned. ) 


x | 1 PRES Lae 








‘f 
‘i 
* 
Ay 
' 
‘i 
i ’ u ” 
a" 
de 
» 
¥ * 
wee) ‘We 
il 4 
‘ 
4 | 
_ wi 
— ft 
re ¢ 4 
ie ee ; 
hav yi 
‘ it i y 
+i t " 
ba ete tei +, 
baa ty Fo 
Jey i @ 



















| ‘ , | ; om aa ihe "2 1 
y ; , \ iv "ih apheol 7 the = +e 
ble, fies 


jn | aoe oes 
f + : Slee ot 
e ie ah we 

by et re us fe 


a. oP 


hive! ay . 
: ew } 7 it | 
j cy om 2 : 


Sn 
te, Lett ae 
‘ pani’ Fee 


> 
' 
1 
yt 
. j 
y 2) 
ified 
: 
‘ 
fi 
‘ 
‘ ' ots 
. en 5 ‘ 
P| 
, j % eo 
' 
. - , 
' uh é dl 
rm me 4 
2 ~, 
{ ay * ‘ 
4n§ ; i Md LU 7 
! 
‘ . 3 a ‘ wy 
h 
S 
v 4 
UL s i ik ? ‘ ‘ My 
‘ 
, ’ ; i$ 
1 } ry 
" ‘ 
" a 
i :' ¢ i) i] 

{ , uf > re i 


DEMCO 
PAMPHLET BINDER 


Tan Pressboard 





